Part time worker 1 - 0 London Underground

Part timer strikes back – Stunning victory at Employment Tribunal

A part-time RMT member of London Underground Station Staff has won a major victory against LU Management at an Employment Tribunal Hearing. The Employment Tribunal Judges ruled unanimously that London Underground had unlawfully reduced his salary and working hours when they transferred him to a new position in February 2014.

The background to the case is that the PT employee signed a contract to work 25 hours per week when he first joined LUL back in 1999. He subsequently had quite a few moves, both under Nomination and Displacement, but when he made his last move in February of this year he was told by management that his working hours would now be reduced to 20 per week. The explanation he was given by them was that following the OSP Re-Organisation Exercise back in 2005, all PT positions were unilaterally reduced to 20 hours per week and as he had nominated for this new position and signed a transfer nomination form and not been displaced, he therefore lost any protection that he originally had regarding the hours per week that he could work and would accordingly have to accept the reduced hours, salary, and pensionable contributions that this would involve.

Luckily enough, the PT member of staff was not prepared to take this ultimatum lying down and he submitted a formal Grievance but this was eventually totally rejected by management after going to an Appeal in front of a General Manager. By the way, the General Manager concerned took some 72 days to formally respond to this Appeal which does not say a lot for the credence or credibility of the current Grievance Procedure but which will not come as a shock to any member of staff who has recently had to go through this process.

Supported by Mick Crossey and Eamonn Lynch from the RMT Stations Functional Council, the PT member of staff then submitted an Employment Tribunal Claim alleging Unfair and Unlawful Deductions from wages amongst other matters. We were fortunate that we got the claim in the day before the new rules and costs came into force, but for various reasons the Union had decided that it was not able to grant us legal representation to fight the claim and we found ourselves having to go through the whole process on our own and up against the vast resources that LUL and the TFL Legal Department can bring to bear with no expense spared.

Members may not be aware of this but both LUL and TFL use the services of Eversheds, who are a vast multi-national firm of Solicitors with many big companies as clients, and who are able to charge up to £400 per hour for acting for these clients.
Nice money if you can get it!!

Eventually, after a 2 day Tribunal Hearing in early May where the member of staff and Mick Crossey were able to put across their arguments, the Tribunal ruled fully in favour of their claim and ordered LUL to pay the PT member of staff his full 25 hours per week salary from February and also repay to him the reduced pension contributions due from this date. The Tribunal also ruled that his agreed contractual hours should carry on as 25 hours per week and that this should continue for as long as is relevant or appropriate, even though his current PT position is only shown as 20 hours per week like all other current PT Staff on LUL. These rulings have now been accepted by LUL Management and have been fully implemented for the member of staff concerned.

Obviously, all these matters brought considerable stress on to the member concerned and it has been medically agreed by all parties that such stress has led to an increase in existing medical problems that he has, and as a consequence we have now launched a further claim against LUL for Disability Discrimination against him due to their recent actions and lack of empathy and sympathy with what they had put him through. This claim is currently with the Union in an attempt to again seek legal representation and we are obviously hoping for a more favourable response this time.

This has been an excellent result for our PT members on LUL and special congratulations should go to the member of staff who had the strength to stand up to management, but a final worrying fact is that there are at least 15 other PT members of station staff out there who may also have a similar claim as their hours have also been reduced without their agreement or authority possibly stretching as far back as OSP in 2005, but I have today been formally advised by management that they have no plans to either contact them or take any unilateral action on their behalf. If you are one of these people who feel they may have been treated in the same way after reading this article, then please contact your local Trade Union Representative as a matter of urgency and ask them to formally take up the case with both your GSM and the Stations Resourcing Unit. If no reaction or response from them, submit a formal Grievance immediately so that LUL Management will have to deal with your complaint and hopefully rectify the wrong that they have inflicted upon you. However, such is the seriousness that the RMT feels about this issue, which we will be formally advising LUL this week that we shall be tabling these concerns on to the Agenda for the next Company Council Meeting and shall be expecting a positive response from management either before or at that meeting. We will ensure that you are all kept advised of any progress or developments regarding this particular matter.