Leaders of the RMT union have now suspended plans to hold a 48-hour strike this week while they recommend the 4.2% pay offer to 2,915 workers at Tube Lines

The union has also struck a deal to protect jobs following fears that more than 500 workers were facing redundancy.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said the deal would deliver “an immediate 4.2% along with inflation-busting increases for the following two years.”

He added: “Once again, RMT members have shown that if you are prepared to stand together and take action in defence of pay, jobs and working conditions you can win.”

Maintenance work was transferred from Tube Lines to Transport for London (TfL) last month after a dispute over costs and delays to the modernisation of some underground lines.

A TfL spokesman said: “The pay offer accepted by the RMT at Tube Lines is entirely consistent with those already accepted by the union at London Underground and Transport for London last year, when staff and unions accepted 1.5% in 2009, followed by RPI plus 0.5% this year and next.

“This was an existing dispute between Tube Lines and the RMT about pay and conditions, not over the transfer of Tube Lines to TfL,” he added