• LU busting safety rules by running uninspected trains, says RMT
• Union has evidence that trains that have not been inspected for 14 days have not been taken out of service, as operating rules require.

ALL MAJOR engineering work on London Underground scheduled for this weekend has been cancelled as an overtime by the network’s two biggest unions begins to bite.

Works hit by the ban include major re-railing between White City and Marble Arch, as well as all work on signalling systems.

RMT and TSSA members across the Tube are refusing to work extra hours as part of an industrial dispute to stop the axing of 800 safety-critical station-staff and other posts.

RMT has calculated that the cost to LU of the cancellations is already at least £15 million, cancelling out the saving the company claims it will make by removing 800 front-line staff.

The union also charged today that LUL was running trains that had not been inspected within strict time-limits and was continuing to open under-staffed stations, in breach of safety rules and increasing risk to passengers and Tube staff.

Train brake blocks, cab equipment, chassis brackets and other critical equipment is supposed to be inspected at 14-day intervals, and the union has evidence that trains that have not been inspected for at least 22 days have not been taken out of service, as operating rules require.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today:

“It is becoming ever more clear that LUL’s determination to force through these dangerous cuts has impaired its judgment to the extent that it is prepared to ignore its own safety standards.

“It is also in danger of throwing away far more money than it is likely to save by pursuing cuts that the men and women who get out there and run the Tube day in and day out have made clear are both unsafe and unnecessary.

“We will continue to pursue a settlement that protects the safety of our members and the travelling public, and we are waiting for LUL to get back to us with a positive response following our talks at ACAS.

“If the Mayor is serious about defending London Underground from government cuts he should be lining up with us on this issue and sticking by the election pledge he made to defend ticket offices across the Tube network.”