by Rick Grogan, RMT rep, East Ham group

On East Ham group there is an ongoing dispute due to management’s disregard of proper procedure and the bullying and unfair sacking of staff.

A meeting with management made things worse, with management now saying you are not entitled to a union rep until you have been off sick for 28 days.

This opens the door to widespread abuse and bullying of staff. We have been struggling for over a year to get management to accept our agreements and now they have shown their contempt and torn up our right to representation when off sick.

We are witnessing a marked rise in intimidation of staff when off sick. If representation is denied before 28 days, staff will have no protection at all.

I have witnessed staff in despair after having their pay stopped illegally and then had to fight for months to get it returned. We have to stop this now. Ballot every grade in every department of the job and bring us all out against the attendance procedure.