Defending and improving conditions

AMENDED INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Further to my previous correspondence, I would again like to congratulate you for supporting your union’s call for strike action and action short of a strike in defence of your pension. Your Executive has carefully considered the strong wish of you and your colleagues to carry out industrial action in order to oppose these plans and those expressed by your representatives to fight TfL’s plans. I can now advise you that your General Grades Committee has decided to amend some of the industrial action.

Due to the massive response to, and the damning results of, my survey last year, London Underground were shamed into taking our Thermal Comfort seriously.

Unfortunately, they haven’t taken it seriously enough – as you are about to discover.

LU recently employed various people and/or departments to look at ‘The Thermal Comfort of Operational Staff Who Work Outside’. During this exercise our uniform was tested to determine its TOG rating.

Here’s what a London Underground HSE advisor said.

The RMT have received a document which shows that London Underground bosses plan for all station staff to work across all stations in their area while for 1/3 or 1/4 weeks we will all work as “cover”. Cover will be arranged over several groups meaning some staff could work in a number of stations with longer travelling time to and from work.

The briefing also gives some details about assessments for CSM and CSS roles. It looks as though the assessments will rely on subjective assessments of the suitability of each member.

Following a ballot for strike action which resulted in an overwhelming 88% vote in favour in a dispute over the systematic abuse of drivers and the unilateral ripping up of negotiated agreements, all RMT Train Operators and Instructor Operators on the Piccadilly Line are instructed to not book on for any turns of duty that commence between: -

12:00 hours on Wednesday 4th December 2013 and 11:59 hours on Thursday 5th December 2013.

We note the report from our Regional Organiser and share his alarm at the increase in the number of projected redundancies and the spread of possible redundancies to clerical grades.

We note that our Regional Organiser has requested feedback from our branch and representatives and instruct the General Secretary to place this in front of us when received.

We also instruct the General Secretary to ensure that our TfL membership details are kept as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

Rail union RMT said today that it is stepping up the campaign against attempts by agencies, notably Trainpeople, to force their way into the rail industry with the express intent of profiteering at the expense of jobs, security and decent pay and conditions.

RMT branches in Wales have alerted the union to the fact that there is a new drive by Trainpeople to try and get a foot in the door through an aggressive marketing approach to railway employers. The union has pledged again to fight off any attempts by Trainpeople, or similar agencies, to downgrade and casualise rail jobs.

We note the continuing widespread use of agency labour by London Underground Ltd (and other parts of Transport for London): as of 2 April this year, there were 829 'non-permanent' staff on London Underground Ltd. LUL’s continuing use and abuse of agency staff is seriously detrimental to LUL employees, as it undermines their opportunities to obtain and retain work and creates disruption in the workplace Ltd. We reaffirm our demand that LUL stops using agencies and offers their workers permanent employment - including those of the 33 former Trainpeople employees that it has not yet employed.

We note the report from our Regional Organiser and the correspondence from the employer.

We instruct the General Secretary to tabulate the differences in attendance policies, pension rights and travel benefits for former LUL employees and other employees, in preparation for tabling to this employer a demand that all employees be levelled up to equal rights and benefits in these three areas.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised. LU Engineering branch and our Cubic representative to be advised by personal letter.