Click here to read the RMT Executive's current position on futher industrial action.

circular below from General Secretary Bob Crow

JOB CUTS – LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/14/5)

Further to my previous circular, and following the meeting of reps and activists that took place on Monday 20th December, I can confirm that planning meetings have taken place over the proposed review bodies. These reviews are now due to commence their work from 4th January 2011, and are outlined below.

1. Supplementary Safety Review

This will take place in addition to the existing safety validation process, and will be prioritised to focus on those stations where significant changes to rosters are proposed. Two Stations Functional and Two Stations Safety Council representatives will participate, and adequate release will be granted to allow meaningful consultation.

2. Impact on Staff

Items raised in the 40 collective grievances in relation to the impact on staff will be reviewed. Local and Functional Representatives will be able to raise issues arising from the grievances on a line by line basis. Two Stations Functional representatives will be allocated to review the impact on staff.

3. Equality Impact

A Functional Level review will take place to consider and address the Equality Impact Assessment for stations roster changes. One Station Representative and one member of Head Office Staff to be allocated to review its impact.

4. Ticket Selling Service

Management propose that a review takes place of those locations where RMT and TSSA believe that the resulting proposals for Ticket Office service are inadequate. Two Functional Representatives will be allocated to review ticket selling.

A fifth review headed “Longer Term Role of Station Staff” will be initiated as soon as the above four reviews have been concluded.

New Years Eve Overtime Ban suspended

Some of our station representatives recently raised concerns regarding the issue of the New Years Eve rosters and the current continuous overtime ban. It was pointed out that to implement the overtime ban it would not be possible to agree New Year working and this would give management an opportunity to impose rosters, allocate overtime which favoured individuals and would create a precedent for working on New Year’s Eve with lower staffing levels. Similar considerations also apply to other grades of staff. We were approached by TSSA on this matter and it was agreed that we would suspend the overtime ban for 48 hours only over the New Year period.

The overtime ban is therefore suspended from 00.01 hours on Friday 31st December 2010 and is to resume after 00.02 hours on Sunday 2nd January 2011.

DISMISSALS OF EAMONN LYNCH AND ARWYN THOMAS

Branches will be aware that that Brother Eamonn Lynch was sacked by LUL for a relatively minor operational incident. We firmly believe that management has decided to victimise Eamonn for his trade union activities and an Employment Tribunal has already supported this view. We have now appealed directly to senior management to hold a Director’s Review into this case. No response has yet been received to this request.

In our letter appealing for a Director’s Review I wrote stating” there is a new point of principal arising from the CDI and the appeal rulings where it is stated that management considered other possible sanctions but because there are no jobs on the stations they were not able to consider reducing Eamonn Lynch in grade. This is an entirely new development which sets a new principal in dealing with disciplinary charges in general.” This affects every Train Operator on the LUL. As you know, it has been common practice for many years that when a driver is disciplined a disciplinary punishment short of dismissal available to management is the “dipping” of a driver down to a station staff grade. It now appears to have been unilaterally withdrawn by management which we believe this is an intolerable situation.

We held a ballot for industrial in defence of Eamonn and our Traincrew members at Queens Park and Elephant and Castle voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action which was called over 24 hours on Friday 17th and Saturday 18th December. This action was tremendously supported and shut down the entire Bakerloo Line. Not one single train ran save for one pathetic effort to run a shuttle service at about 5pm which was purely a token effort on LUL’s part to get some PR. Management can be under no allusion as to the support Brother Lynch has from his union and amongst his colleagues on the Bakerloo Line. We continue to press management for a Director’s review and will keep you advised of further developments.

Branches also will know of the case of Brother Arwyn Thomas, a Train Operator at Morden and long standing RMT activist who was dismissed by LUL. Yet again this was another example of LUL victimising an RMT activist. A ballot for industrial action was called and Train Operators voted in favour of industrial action. Strike action was called in tandem with that called over Brother Eamonn Lynch’s dismissal with strike action called for 24 hours between Friday 17th and Saturday 18th December. The action was well supported with massive picketing efforts made at Morden Traincrew Depot.