Agency workers

At this month's London Transport Regional Council Meeting, reports were given by our Executive member Janine Booth and Regional Organiser John Leach.

These are just notes of the areas discussed - to find out more, have a look through this site, speak to your local rep and do your best to attend branch meetings and the LTRC meeting which is held on the last Thursday of each month except June and December.

Meeting Agenda

The 'Justice For The 33' campaign went to London Underground head office - 55 Broadway - today. RMT's London Transport Region have long been campaigning for tube bosses to employ the thirty-three agency workers who lost their jobs on the tube. They were employed by Trainpeople agency for five years working as station assistants, but when Trainpeople's contract was ended early, they were sacked.

TUBE UNION RMT said today that staff sacked from London Underground’s “Trainpeople” agency contract will be stepping up their fight for jobs and justice following the termination of the deal which has dumped 33 staff on the dole, making a mockery of regulations which were supposed to protect the employment rights of agency staff.

The staff will be taking their fight to Transport for London with a protest in support of “Justice for the 33”at the HQ building Windsor House, Victoria Street on Monday 15th April 2013 between 0800 hours and 1000 hours.

Since the 1980s, various parts of London Underground have been hived off to the private sector, leading to pay cuts, job losses, worse services and more bureaucracy. The failures of these privatisations – and RMT campaigning – have led to some of these sections returning to public ownership:

• Metronet collapsed in 2007 and became part of LUL again in 2008
• Tube Lines was bought by TfL in 2010
• Tube Lines has taken train maintenance at Stratford Market Depot away from Alstom and back in-house
  

Please click this link to take part in our online campaign calling on London Underground to offer permanent employment to the 33 staff left without work when the Trainpeople agency’s contract came to an end:

LabourStart Campaign

Thirty-three agency staff working on London Underground, some for as long as five years, were told just before Christmas that the contract with their agency, Trainpeople, had been ended, and that they would lose their jobs in January.

TUBE UNION RMT said today that in a ballot of staff working on London Underground’s “Trainpeople” agency contract members have voted unanimously for strike action over the termination of a deal which will dump dozens of staff on the dole and which makes a mockery of regulations which were supposed to protect the employment rights of agency staff.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd, outlining its refusal to offer employment to the redundant Trainpeople employees, and containing a list of spurious excuses for denying the legal and moral rights of these workers.

We condemn London Underground’s refusal to offer permanent employment to people who have been working on its stations for up to five years or more

We instruct the General Secretary to:

1. continue to demand that LUL fulfil its obligations and offer employment to these workers
2. continue to support campaigning and protests in pursuit of this
   

33 RMT London Underground “Trainpeople” staff – who face the prospect of dismissal this week - took their demo right to the heart of the company that treated them so appallingly today.

The sacked workers and their supporters were at St James Park station on Tuesday 15th January at 8am where they set up a soup kitchen to highlight their plight and build public and political support for their fight for jobs and justice.