Docklands Light Railway

On Thursday's edition of BBC London, during an item about the £2500 Olympic Bonus for Docklands Light Railway workers the Fire brigades' Union was incorrectly quoted as saying "The Fire Brigades Union has told us tonight that they think this deal is unfair.”

The FBU was quick to correct the misquote issuing a statement to all their members:

Transport union RMT said today that it has secured a ground breaking Olympics pay deal on DLR worth £2500 made up of a guaranteed attendance payment of £900 and guaranteed overtime payments for all staff throughout the Olympics and paralympics period.

The agreement is constructed as follows:

• £900 attendance bonus, paid at £100 per week over a 9-week period for all staff in every grade.∙
• Time +¾ for any hour worked on overtime throughout the 9-week period with a guaranteed minimum 5 hours per week, 45 hours over the 9 week period, for all staff in every grade.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the offer from Serco Docklands, as follows:
• £900 attendance bonus, paid at £100 per week over a 9-week period for all staff in every grade.
• Time +¾ for any hour worked on overtime throughout the 9-week period with a guaranteed minimum 5 hours per week, 45 hours over the 9 week period, for all staff in every grade.
• Any grade that does not have an Olympic impact will be given ‘first refusal’ in areas such as crowd control should they wish to carry out this work.

In the last two days, two RMT tube drivers have been reinstated. This is the latest of several RMT members to be reinstated following unfair dismissals.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We welcome the AGM resolution calling for a national ‘SOS: Staff Our Stations’ campaign, particularly considering the renewed threat to station staffing posed by the McNulty report. We will campaign on this issue in conjunction with our campaign on McNulty.

We further note that a meeting has been arranged between ourselves and the TSSA on 24 October to discuss this issue. We instruct the General Secretary to prepare for this meeting by:

This article is taken from the September issue of RMT News, page 16EC member Janine Booth outlines six successful union campaigns to reverse unfair sackings from different grades and in different companies Docklands Light Railway Sacked Passenger Service Agents Ian Peavot and Julian Harper for comments they posted on Facebook. DLR staff, nearly all of whom are RMT members, also had other grievances against the company, and when talks made little progress, voted overwhelmingly for industrial action. RMT reps decided on a 48- hour strike, and while lawyers wrangled about its legality, the branch kept campaigning and negotiating. Management backed down, reinstated Ian and Julian, and resolved the other issues too. Meanwhile, RMT and TSSA members on London Underground were fighting job cuts, and the company took hostages.

Update: London Underground has revised its offer to four years: 5% this year, RPI+0.5% (minimum 2%) for years 2, 3 and 4.

RMT workplace representatives will be discussing this at a meeting on Tuesday 4 October.You work hard, your employer makes money from your efforts, and you have bills to pay. So your union organises members to win better pay and working conditions. RMT aims to achieve:

• above-inflation pay rises - anything else is a pay cut in real terms, as your outgoings increase faster than your income;

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

That we note the report from our Lead Officer on negotiations with DLR. The General Secretary is instructed to ensure that we enter into negotiations with Serco Docklands on the Olympics issue and to ensure that reports are placed before the General Grades Committee so that we can co-ordinate our response with those offers received from other companies.

RMT General Grades Committee decision: