Defending and improving conditions

Pay negotiations update from RMT Regional Organiser John Leach.

This afternoon I attended talks with RMT senior functional reps and Directors of LUL.

Members will know that the company so far have offered a two year pay deal 2015 ..0.50% and 2016 RPI and two one off payments of £250 for night tube.

At todays meeting the company have marginally revised the offer to:

2015...0.75%(1/4 %increase)
2016 ..RPI

So over the two years the offer has been moved by a mere 0.25%!

SUPPORT FITTER GRADE – LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/2/2)

Discussions with the Company have taken place regarding the entry level grade within the Electrical Team in the Stations and Structural Maintenance Function and in particular whether the role should be Support Fitter or Support Technician. Your Union claimed that staff in the Electrical Team were subject to the Signals Framework Agreement and the entry level grade within that Agreement was the Support Technician role.

WITHDRAWAL OF REST DAYS, TRACK & CIVILS STAFF – TUBELINES (AP JNP) (LUL/8/6)

Further to my previous Circular (IR/081/15, 23rd March 2015), the referendum has concluded with members voting as follows:-

Question: Are you prepared to accept the Company’s offer?

Total Votes Cast… 46
Number Voting ‘Yes’… 7
Number Voting ‘No’… 39
Spoilt Papers… 0

Referring to my previous Circular (IR/061/15, 2nd March 2015), Branches will recall that a resolution was received from our LU Engineering Branch advising that Tube Lines were imposing changes to our members’ terms and conditions. The General Grades Committee has considered this resolution and instructed me to write to Tube Lines to demand that these arrangements are not imposed and to conduct a referendum of the affected members with a recommendation to reject the proposals. The changes referred to are as follows:-

This week, after months of talks, your TFC reps, along with their Aslef colleagues, were finally in a position to put a joint proposal on rostering Night Tube to LUL trains management. This followed a decision at Company Council to review the impact of Night Tube on all members of staff.

RMT campaigning has forced cleaning company Interserve to commit to hiring 50 AGS agency cleaners on permanent contracts across London Underground by the end of April 2015.

This shows that union campaigning gets results. Our exposure of AGS’s exploitative practises, such as forcing workers to register as “self-employed”, is putting pressure on Interserve. Let’s keep up the fight and win more permanent contracts for cleaners.

A resolution was recently received from Jubilee South Branch regarding the above and this matter has been considered by the General Grades Committee, which has taken the decision to investigate the use of “disguised employees” by Interserve and other companies in TfL/LUL (reference LUL Engineers Charter and article by GS in January RMT News ‘Fighting Casualisation’) and to produce a report on this worrying pract

BREAKDOWN OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS – INTERSERVE (LUL CONTRACT) (LUL/14/2)

Further to my previous Circular (IR/303/14, 17th November 2014), members will recall that we advised the Company that a dispute situation existed over the mistreatment of staff and abuse of power by supervisors and management, non-payment of wages, and attacks on trade union reps and activists. The RMT Reps then commenced the task of checking and updating member’s details as necessary for a ballot for industrial action.

Further to my previous Circular (IR/061/15, 2nd March 2015), the Company has been informed that a dispute situation now exists over the proposed changes to the Services organisation as part of the GTS Optimisation Programme. The proposals include compulsory redundancies and those members left at the Company will be facing worse rosters, shift patterns and terms and conditions. RMT put forward strong counter-proposals during discussions but it is clear that the Company has no intention of changing their plans.

This guidance document covers the following areas:

• What is rainbow?
• How is it being implemented
• What does it mean for our members?
• Threat of medical termination or disciplinary action relating to capability
• What should RMT reps & activists do next?