PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2014 :: RMTnews 9 Whatever your views on the question of Scottish independence I believe that there was a general hope that following the referendum the people of Scotland would have more say over many aspects of our lives. Myself and a number of colleagues took the view that one of the areas this could affect would be rail where, under current Westminster legislation, the Scottish Government has to put the Scotrail franchise out to tender. Therefore, I had no hesitation in supporting a statement initiated by the RMT and other rail unions and also tabling a motion in parliament which noted that as part of the new devolution settlement there could be a commitment to devolve responsibility on rail, particularly given the commitment from the Labour Party, Greens and SNP to support this. This would give the Scottish Government the power to decide whether it wished to run ScotRail's services in the public sector. However, my motion in parliament and the statement also expressed concern that under the tendering process the winning bidder for the ScotRail franchise was to be notified in October 2014 and, since the franchise was due to start in April 2015 for 10 years, Scotland’s rail passenger services would be privatised for the next decade. That is why unions, MSPs and MPs called on the Scottish Government to use its legal powers to suspend the Scotrail franchise procurement process until new rail powers had been devolved and also to review the decision to award the Caledonia Sleeper franchise to SERCO. There was absolutely no legal reason why this could not be done and therefore it was a travesty that the Scottish Government decided to ignore the unions and proceed to re-privatise Scotrail services for a decade. And, ironically, they handed the contract to Abellio, an arm of Dutch state railways, thus taking the profits completely out of the Scottish economy. Dutch public ownership of Scotland’s railways. There were a lot of red herrings put forward by the Scottish Government to justify their decision. Chief of these was the claim that they would be liable to being sued for costs by the bidders for the franchise and also the claim that it was not clear that they would receive new rail powers anyway. But, as the RMT quite rightly pointed out, the Scotrail tender documents contained a clause giving Transport Scotland the right to “vary, suspend or terminate the process in any way” which would have protected the government from being sued.. It is also worth noting that bidder’s costs are typically in the region of between £5m per bid. Compare that to the fact in the last six years £110m has been paid in dividends by Scotrail to shareholders. This puts into perspective the cost in the event of the remote chances of a legal challenge to reclaim bid costs succeeding and could be considered a price worth paying in the circumstances. As for whether the new rail powers would have been forthcoming; it was already clear under the devolution timetable that the new legislation would be drafted early in 2015 so the Scottish government could have simply delayed making any final decision until the New Year. The Scottish Government also claimed that the franchise they signed has a break clause where after five years the franchise could be reviewed but that review only allows for whether the franchise should be limited to seven or ten years in total. Indeed the government used this clause in 2008 when they were supposed to retender but simply extended the Scotrail contract without any consultation at that time The Scottish government had an opportunity to emerge from this whole episode as a champion of public ownership of the railways instead, as with the Westminster government, it appears it was simply not in the ideological make-up of the Scottish Government to be able to consider anything else other than rail privatisation. It is to be hoped, however, that the outcry over their handling of Scotrail will make the Scottish Government think again about their plans to tender lifeline Caledonian MacBrayne ferry services. The invitation to tender is due out over the coming months and the Scottish Government may seek to hide behind the claim that this process is required by inflexible EU law. But the Government will also know that there is zero public support for privatising these services and handing them to the likes of SERCO. Therefore, it seems reasonable to expect the Scottish Government to do all it can to explore all legislative options to fight to preserve public ownership of Scottish ferry services and, as an absolute minimum, enshrine cast iron protections for workers’ jobs, pensions and conditions in any future contract for these vital services. The fight against privatisation and neo- liberalism continues. Elaine Smith is the Labour MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston and convenor of the RMT Group of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament SCOTRAIL PRIVATISED BY SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT - IS CALEDONIAN MACBRAYNE NEXT? T he derailment of a freight train at Camden Road last year has been blamed on a series of failures and operational issues which had all been raised repeatedly by RMT, a damning report by the Rail Accident Investigation Board has confirmed. The core issues in the report includes the high turnover and loss of experienced staff, deteriorating condition of the track, slippage on key maintenance schedules and poor knowledge of the condition of the track. Similar issues had been raised by the RAIB in a recent report into the derailment of a freight train west of Gloucester which also happened last October. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that the report must be a wake up call to the government and the Office of Rail Regulation who continue to demand cuts to maintenance and staffing. “This union refuses to be ignored by those in charge any longer and demand urgent action to address all the issues raised in both derailment reports and that means an immediate halt to the McNulty- driven cuts,” he said. RMT PREDICTED CAMDEN ROAD DERAILMENT