TUBE BALLOT OVER JOBS AND SAFETY

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2016 :: RMTnews 8 London Underground station staff RMT members are being balloted for industrial action over job cuts, the critical safety role of control rooms, forced displacement of staff, grading and a crisis resulting from ticket offices closures. Nearly 900 jobs have been removed from stations leaving staff unable to cope with the demands of running busy stations. Many station control rooms, where communication and alarm systems should be monitored, have been closed. A recent report, compiled by London Underground itself, blames the job cuts and unstaffed control room for a serious incident at Canning Town station, when an evacuation spiralled out of control following an accident where a passenger fell between a train and platform RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that London Underground knows that it has compromised safety and customer service across its stations by cutting jobs. “A responsible employer would reverse the job cuts and put staff back into station control rooms and if London Underground really cares about passengers it would reverse the ticket office closure programme. “The continuing impact of those cuts leaves us with no alternative but to move to a ballot for industrial action,” he said. Fit for the Future is the name given by London Underground to new tube staffing arrangements that include cuts but goes much further. As well as closing ticket offices management has given every grade roles that were previously done by the grade above, ie an unpaid promotion. Customer info points go unanswered as many station control rooms are now unstaffed and fire control panels, lift alarms and crucial communication lines are all based in the unstaffed control rooms. According to the company report into the Canning Town incident it was unclear as to who was performing what role, there was a lack of familiarity with local incident management processes and no liaison between stakeholders as defined within the Control and Congestion Emergency Plan (CCEP). Canning Town operates with a zero numbers staffing level and communications from NSCC were impaired due to the noise and no instruction was given to stop the DLR dispatching passengers at Canning Town The massive job losses have left stations running on overtime. In many areas the legal minimum staffing numbers cannot be maintained without rest-day working. Shortage of cover means stations are kept open at the cost of short notice changes to duty and constant changes of duty patterns when working cover weeks. A mixture of early, late and night turns in one five day week is not unusual. This means that as well as running stations with fewer staff there are far more “managers” amongst those left, who are pressured to carry out non-operational work instead of being available on the stations. The company is trying to mould these new managers into an anti-worker aggressive management team. Staff are getting told to attend workplace meetings after just a few days of sickness and threats to withdraw sick pay are becoming more common. Further chaos has been created by the mass displacement of staff. Ticket clerks with years of experience at one location have been put in charge, as station supervisors, of Euston, Kings Cross or Victoria overnight while others have been moved to lone working locations in outer zones. At least a third of all station staff have been moved. Some 600 continue to face the prospect of a further displacement anytime in the next three or four years. RMT won a 30-minute limit to displacement and the company agreed to negotiate a policy to TUBE BALLOT OVER JOBS AND SAFETY