by Bill O’Dowd, Trains Council
LUL management can’t get a new Attendance At Work policy, so say they will ‘enforce the existing one’. This means there will be no more ‘not normally counted items’ such as medical treatments at hospital, unless it is an emergency admittance!
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.
by Janine Booth, Stations & Revenue Council
As well as the Attendance Clampdown and unfair sackings (reported elsewhere in this newsletter),
LUL management are attacking station and revenue staff’s rights in several other ways: • threatening to forcibly displace staff away from the station they enjoy working at; • misusing the new Special Requirements Team (SRT) to cover for under-staffing of stations; • reorganising Revenue Control and making RCIs feel insecure about their jobs;
by an RMT rep
Our Department Director has informed us of sweeping job cuts. It seems that management are bulldozing these cuts through. Rumours from worried senior managers are claiming that around 2,500 jobs are to be axed on TfL.
After giving us a slide show about ‘proposed’ changes, they then handed every member of staff a letter telling them whether their position had been ceased or not, and whether you would have to reapply for your own job.
by Becky Crocker, Cleaners’ Co-ordinator, RMT Camden 3 branch
When cleaners took strike action, the cleaning companies victimised key activists.
Stonebridge Park RMT rep, Godday, organised a 100% solid strike at his depot. The day after, he was suspended without pay, removing this inspiring and effective rep from his workplace. Godday has been out of work since early July.
by Jared Wood, RMT rep, Rickmansworth group
We remain in dispute over the enforced transfer of five CSAs from Rickmansworth group.
RMT’s strike action was extremely well supported. 70% of turns did not book on; 25 members picketed. Several TSSA members and even non-union staff observed the strike.
LUL is picking local disputes with station staff in an attempt to demoralise us by facing these down. At some point they will attempt a major cut in station staff numbers. This must not be allowed to happen.
RMT MEETING TO DISCUSS THIS YEARS PAY CLAIM AND THE VICTIMISATION OF REPS AND ACTIVISTS
Monday 13 October, 18:30, Friends House, 173 Euston Road (opposite Euston Station).
We are coming up to the time when the RMT will be discussing your next pay deal with the employers. We are seeking your views on what the pay claim should be and are asking you to attend this meeting to have your say on your future. As a democratic organisation we seek our members’ opinions on all important items and this is your chance to take part in this essential discussion.
Its official: no one seems to know!
After numerous meetings with management, Connect experts and a series of TETRA wave boffins, the Train’s Health and Safety Council are none the wiser about the effects of TETRA waves on the health of our members.
Given that we are mere drivers this is hardly surprising. More worryingly, at a recent TETRA conference organised by LU, the head of LU’s Occupational Health and an eminent expert in the field, brought in for a questions and answers stint, could not give guarantees about the safety of this new technology.
If you are not already aware, this is how the LU Health and Safety Machinery works: if Health and Safety problems or concerns arise locally, the first port of call is your local RMT health and Safety Representative at the Depot. They will raise these concerns with the local manager. If no resolution to the problem can be found, the matter will be referred to us at the Tier 2 Trains Safety Council. If we are unable to resolve the matter it then gets referred to LU Directors / RMT Head office level for them to resolve. Below is a snapshot of items currently being discussed at Tier 2.
Owing to the amount of upgrades with stock and signalling, LU last year allowed the RMT to appoint a dedicated Safety Rep solely to deal with new Upgrade issues. This Rep is Gwyn Pugh from Acton Town Depot.
He has supplied us an update of the burning issues that we will be facing soon.
Code Red: there are plans afoot for Controller to have the ability to stop trains immediately without having to call a „code red‟. The Controller will have a button on his desk that we only have to push for all trains to grind to a halt.