PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2012 :: RMTnews 23 President’s column VOTE TRADE UNIONIST AND SOCIALIST ON MAY 3 RMT is celebrating international Workers’ Day on May 1 by defending jobs and safety across the transport industry. Changes to railway operational rules known as ‘A Different Approach to the Rules’ proposed by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) will allow key operational responsibilities from June to be ‘derogated’ or effectively become the devolved responsibility of train operators. Of course this raises the nightmare of different operators coming to different and contradictory arrangements for briefing and training of operational railway staff including drivers and guards. Your union has declared total opposition to the rulebook changes and written to RSSB and train operators to this effect. RMT and ASLEF has also written to RSSB over changes to Temporary Block Working, which appear to have been commissioned in order to speed up operational practices during ‘deteriorated working’ or signal failure to you and me. This is a clear warning to all railway workers that the McNulty review and the government’s ‘rail command paper’ designed to reintroduce ‘profitability’ into management of rail infrastructure will deliver a body blow to the safe operation and organisation of our railways. Already, Network Rail infrastructure staff report being told that if they fail new courses for Individuals Working Alone (IWA) they will be ‘managed out’ of the business. As Stagecoach shareholders take control of Network Rail’s first devolved region in Wessex, the threat to the safety and job security of all railworkers is clear. Whether you are a signaller or a driver dealing with consequences of a signal failure, a guard or station staff responding to an emergency situation, or a P-Way worker in an engineering possession, the spivs and privateers want to get their hands on our safety operational rulebook to minimise safety operational procedures that could stand in the way of making a profit. The Con Dem government’s Health and Social Care Bill, designed to privatise our NHS, is a continuum of neoliberal policies to open up public services to profit-taking from healthcare to education, to housing, to social services, to disability benefits and public transport. The market for public services is now a global market with rules set by unelected, unrepresentative and unpopular bureaucrats cajoled and controlled by secretive corporate lobbyists. Hundreds of RMT members joined trade unionists from across Europe to march in Brussels to protest against this EU-driven ‘liberalisation’ process taking place in the transport industry which is creating a race to the bottom for workers’ pay and conditions. Trade unions are demanding an alternative, nationalisation not privatisation. On May 3 you will have the opportunity to stand up for this alternative by voting for Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition candidates in local elections in England and Wales. TUSC candidates include RMT members in Daren Ireland in Liverpool Central, Mick Tosh in Portsmouth, Paul Reilly in Nuneaton and David Goodwin in Rugby. I am standing on the London-wide list for the Greater London Assembly alongside RMT’s London Transport regional organiser Steve Hedley. All TUSC candidates are standing on a manifesto of total opposition to the cuts, privatisation and outsourcing regime supported by all the three main political parties and also by the Green Party where they are in office. No-one voted for austerity. No-one voted for NHS privatisation. No-one voted for tax breaks for millionaires and benefit cuts for the disabled. So you have a chance to put down your marker to say you want the alternative to start in your town or city. Vote for a TUSC candidate in order to build a mass political opposition to the attacks on working class people and communities and to fight for a better future. Alex Gordon lists and this is the extent of their duty to make reasonable adjustments – it is not. However it is not unlawful for employers to count disability-related absences for the purposes of sickness absence procedures. Nor does this law protect wages. If a person with a disability accepts a lower position, unless there are other protective terms and conditions within their contract, the law allows them to be paid the rate for the job even if it is lower. In addition to discrimination by failing to make reasonable adjustments, those subjected to less favourable treatment and harassment solely on the ground that they have a disability are also protected. Anyone who believes they are being subjected to discrimination on the grounds of disability should seek further advice as a matter of urgency. Remember the deadline for lodging any Tribunal claim is three months minus one day from the act complained about is and in any event, a grievance should be raised immediately. He has had his problems with his management regarding his health and in recent years has needed RMT help. Having failed a medical in 2009 due to his high blood pressure and diabetes he was dismissed. But he got his job back after winning an interim relief Tribunal. In 2011 Derrick had an accident away from work and broke his femur which saw him off sick for virtually the whole of the year even though BUPA advised he was fit for alternative duties. Management refused to accommodate him in a non- driving role. But with the union’s support he took legal redress and suddenly a job was found for him and a financial out-of- court settlement agreed. STORY