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Fit for Future Bombshell - LUL threatens to impose FFFS

Demand for Members to Sign New Employment Contracts Echoes Company Plan

 RMT negotiators have pushed back LU’s intention to issue new contracts to station staff before Christmas. Management told our negotiators at the Company Council Sub-Group (CCSG) that they intended to ask all members on the three areas going live with Fit for the Future in February to sign new employment contracts this month. We were able to get this plan halted until the New Year but a very real threat remains on the table:
 If a framework and rosters are not agreed by the first week in January then management may demand staff sign new contracts at that point.

New contracts, with new job roles, could be used by LU to argue that members are accepting the new framework, rosters and other arrangements that come with Fit for the Future. 

This would clearly be unacceptable to the RMT:
Our belief is that frameworks and T&P,among other things, are negotiated.
Not imposed.

"Do not sign new contracts"
 - John Leach RMT 
Regional Organiser

RMT Regional Organiser, John Leach, has given clear advice to all members on stations not to sign any new contract. The only exception to this is members on fixed term contracts who are offered permanent contracts.

 Anytime, anyplace, anywhere martini framework is unacceptable

LU is moving towards this draconian approach because they have refused to accept our reasonable demands that any new framework protects our members from being sent to work all over the place at 24 hours notice. In spite of agreement previously reached at ACAS LU’s latest proposals put the Martini framework – Any Time, Any Place, Any Grade – back on the table. Now management are worried that RMT will not sign off a new framework leaving them without a way of working to their new staffing model.

The company has also failed to make good on its commitment to maintain comparable weekends off. Rosters containing significant reductions in weekend rest days have now been published and are labelled as final!

"Strikes will be inevitable if this FFFS model is imposed"
- John Reid RMT NEC member

RMT Council of Executives member, John Reid, has made clear that any attempt to impose rosters or framework on stations would be met with inevitable strike action. If management move to impose new contracts this would represent a breach of the main agreement and the Jobs for Life deal that was won at the time of PPP. LU’s desperation to try and impose Fit for the Future in February is leading them down a road that can only end with more strikes and confrontation. RMT will fight to maintain our jobs for Life deal and the main agreement.

For all other grades the attack on the jobs for life agreement is a direct threat to future re-organisations that LUL have planned.
Let's not wait until they take us out function by function, grade by grade
Solidarity wins.

 LUL - We told you this would happen: why didn't you listen?
Last week a serious incident occurred using a Section 15 Possession whereby a message informing staff that there was a train in the area failed to be passed on. Staff could easily have been on the track with potentially fatal consequences when the Engineering Train went through the section of track.
The RMT are balloting over Section 15 Possessions on the basis that we have said we believe someone will be killed by this procedure. This incident highlights and vindicates exactly what the RMT have been loudly saying to Management
A section 15 Possession is solely about removing tried and tested protection methods for staff to access the track safely and replace it with a diluted possession that fails to address safety issues or cater for human error. It is purely about circumventing our Track Access Controllers who professionally record people working and trains through areas etc with what can only be described as a process more akin to writing it on the back of a fag packet

The RMT are sure that once again they will blame a worker: the reality is that we have consistently warned this very event would occur. We believe LUL are fully and solely to blame for this mess and those that imposed this process should be held account for this near disaster.

The ‘system’ is not fit for purpose and now LUL have had a near miss, it is time to put our member’s life first and we call on LUL to scrap this ludicrous process and get back round the table with our Health and Safety Experts.

RMT name an unprecedented  number of strike days on DLR

The  RMT said  that staff across all grades on Keolis Amey Docklands Light Railway will strike on numerous occasions next year in a dispute over a range of serious unresolved issues that are wrecking industrial relations. The action follows a 48 hour strike on DLR last month which completely shut down the service for the duration.
 The announcement of action comes after continuing talks have so far failed to make any serious progress. RMT members voted by 92% for action back in October.
The key issues at the heart of the dispute remain:

Abuses of the use of agency staff  within the KAD network
Undermining the position of Control Centre, stores and other grades effectively casualising key functions
A creeping culture of bullying and intimidation of staff being allowed to develop
Breaches of agreements, procedures and the recognition framework.

Fare evasion rockets 200%

In the wake of figures released  by the Labour Group on the GLA showing that fare evasion on London Underground has rocketed by over 200%, tube union RMT revealed today that, as well as closing ticket offices, LU has reduced revenue inspectors by more than a third with more cuts to come.As well as calling for a reversal of the ticket office closures, RMT have issued a new call to the Mayor and London Underground to halt this sharp decline in the amount of Revenue Control Inspectors (RCI'S)  on the Tube