DEFENDING BUS WORKERS

Parliamentary column www.rmt.org.uk :: may 2008 :: RMTnews 9 The Local Transport Bill currently progressing through Parliament seeks to make it easier for local authorities to regulate bus services through the introduction of Quality Contracts. There is currently no legislation, however, that provides protection for bus workers’ employment, pensions and conditions of service where bus services are transferred from a wholly deregulated and private market to a Quality Contract. February’s edition of RMT News reported on the union’s campaign to seek amendments to the Local Transport Bill to protect bus workers employment conditions and pensions. The union has already won some amendments in the Lords to provide TUPE protection for the bus workers and the Bill was recently subject to detailed scrutiny at Committee Stage in the House of Commons. Working with RMT and T&G section of Unite, Labour MPs tabled amendments at Committee stage that would provide further protections of bus workers employment and pensions. In supporting these amendments Graham Stringer MP warned the Minister, Rosie Winterton, that protections were needed because “some of the bus operators were “cowboys”. “It is as well to be prepared for reckless intentional and unintentional behaviour, given the statements of Brian Souter, who said that he would withdraw all services if he lost a contract… that is the real world in which we operate,” he said. Mr Stringer said the purpose of his amendments were to “protect employees who operate services in such areas by allowing them to transfer to the new operator—the winner of the contract”. “It also provides that if such people are contracted to provide public services, they should be able to join and have the benefit of the local government pension scheme,” he said. Labour MP Ian Stewart also argued that one clear benefit of quality contracts was that once one is in place there will be stability of bus service provision and, he hoped, of employment. “The difficulty, which the Bill has not yet adequately addressed, is in ensuring stability of service and employment during the transition to quality contract,” he said. Supporting amendments that would protect bus workers existing pension benefits, Mr Stewart reminded the Minister that the government had previously introduced legislation to protect existing pension benefits in other reorganisations of the transport sector such as the privatisation of British Rail and the public-private partnership for the London Underground. The Minister responded saying that “those are all matters on which we hope to give some reassurance and we very carefully consider the points made about the application of TUPE during the transitional period and the need to secure a fair degree of pension protection”. She strongly indicated that the government would bring forward further amendments at Report Stage – the last stage before the Bill gets Royal Assent – to introduce pension protection and extend TUPE employment protection and introduce regulation and guidance in other areas. She also been confirmed that bus workers who transfer to a Quality Contracts would be eligible to joint the Local Government Pension Scheme and that trade unions will have to be consulted before a quality contract is set up. MPs will be seeking a special meeting with the Minister before the final stages of the Bill and David Drew MP has tabled Early Day Motion 1368 which “applauds bus workers, who as essential public servants, play a vital role in keeping Britain moving; believes bus workers deserve the strongest possible protection in the event that a local authority decides to introduce a Quality Contract; and therefore supports amendments to the Local Transport Bill which will ensure the protection of bus workers' employment, terms and conditions and pensions”. Get your MP to sign 1368 EDM. organisation of the market ’. This means all the rights conferred on us by the Charter can be decided by the Court and case law is taken into account when reaching decisions. This growing marketisation of human rights is illustrated by judgments of the ECJ delivered during the last six months in the Laval, Viking and Ruffert cases. It represents a threat to RMT members covered by local collective bargaining agreements. A company could claim that their rights to ‘freedom of establishment’ override your rights to protect your wages and conditions at work. However, Richard Arthur maintained that it was right and legitimate that workers and trade unions should seek to impose minimum labour standards, such as commitments to abide by rates of pay in collective agreements, in public procurement contracts. “They should be permitted, and indeed encouraged, to do so in the interest of maintaining national labour standards and preventing social dumping,” he said. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that Irish workers should reject the Lisbon Treaty in their referendum on June 12 because it underpins these ECJ judgments and the EU’s market values. “They should resist this ‘race to the bottom’ in the interests of the ‘market’ and in so doing, send a clear message to employers across Europe that workers are not going to accept anti-worker EU diktats that favour of big business and encourage social dumping,” he said. ICE DEFENDING BUS WORKERS