RMT Executive decisions

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note that our legal advisers now see merit in Brother Mihaj’s legal case, and instruct the General Secretary to ensure that this case is pursued energetically and to place progress reports in front of us.

We further instruct the General Secretary to ask our legal advisers to reconsider their advice regarding the legality of the relevant clause in the Sodexo employment contract, taking into account all possible issues.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the report from our Regional Organiser, that RMT has submitted a pay claim to ISS, and met with the company on 20 March to demand:

• a substantial, above-RPI pay rise
• a substantial Olympic bonus
• a sick pay scheme
• free travel passes
• improvement to the pension scheme

Should ISS not agree to these demands, our representatives wish us to ballot members for strike action and action short of strikes.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the correspondence on file from London Underground Ltd. We further note the comments from our representatives about this correspondence, which refute in detail management’s claim that progress is being made towards resolving our concerns.

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to reply to LUL along the lines of our representatives’ comments, and to continue with preparing the industrial action ballot as instructed by our previous decision/.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the resolution from our East Ham branch requesting that all grades be balloted for action short of strikes over OSN101 and related issues.

We instruct the General Secretary to urgently seek the views of all our branches with London Underground members and our Regional Council on this matter, and to place their responses in front of us.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the correspondence from Accord, refusing our application for a voluntary recognition agreement despite the large proportion of employees in the bargaining unit who are members of RMT.

We instruct the General Secretary to press ahead with the application for statutory recognition, and with attempts to secure the support of Unite and the TUC for this application.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd, which fails to give the assurances that this union asked for, that current staffing establishment levels are protected and maintained over at least the period of the current pay deal. Instead, LUL has offered only vague phrase-mongering about “continuity of employment”, and made even this conditional on “common sense flexibility and cooperation to adapt to reasonable changes”. Experience tells us that this indicates LUL’s intention to cut staffing levels and attack working conditions.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the report from our LU Fleet branch. We also note that this issue was addressed on 30 January, under the heading REPRESENTATION OF FLEET GRADES (HSR/4/2), instructing the General Secretary to raise this item with London Underground Ltd in line with the resolution from LU Fleet branch.

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to:

• obtain a report on the union’s progress in raising this issue with LUL, and place this report in front of us

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note that talks at ACAS aimed at resolving the dispute over Olympics recognition and reward for all London Underground staff broke down yesterday, with LUL attempting to use the pretext of the Olympics to attack working conditions and undermine public safety. The company’s ‘offer’ demands changes to Framework Agreements and does not apply to all grades.

RMT Council of Executives decision:

We welcome the resolution from our National Women’s Conference recommending that the union produce a regular women’s newsletter, and refer this to the Equal Rights Sub-Committee for examination and report to the next Council of Executives meeting.

Council of Executives decision:

We instruct the General Secretary to make the following amendments to the draft membership form.

1. Number the new section ‘Sexual Orientation’ ‘5’, and renumber subsequent sections 5 and 6 as 6 and 7 respectively.
2. Replace the sentence ‘If you wish for the RMT to contact you with information about union LGBT activities, then please tick here’ with ‘If you wish RMT to contact you with information about union activities for lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender members, please tick here’