TUBE ACTION OVER STATION STAFFING

T ube station staff members began a campaign of members not working overtime or rest days from November 23 2016 until further notice. 85 per cent voted for strike action and 94 per cent for action short of a strike in the ballot. The dispute is over tube station staffing and safety. Over 3,000 RMT station staff members were balloted for action over the impact on safety from the axing of nearly 900 front-line workers alongside the closure of tube ticket offices. The remaining staff have been left 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. 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. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that RMT would not stand by while safety was compromised on London Underground due to cash-led cuts to staffing levels. RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2016 :: RMTnews 7 N ew Department of Transport figures show that the private sector railway industry is shelling out record amounts of compensation for increasingly failing services. With companies now being forced to tell customers how to claim for the appalling service they endure, passenger compensation is sky rocketing. Virgin West Coast has doubled the compensation it has had to pay out in two years from £6.78 million in 2013/14 to a whopping £13.8 million in 2015/16. Over on East Coast Virgin has seen compensation rise since it took over from the public sector from £450,000 to £10.8 million. With over £44.9 million paid out by all the companies in 2015/16 the true extent of a failing private sector railway is becoming apparent to everyone. With First Group paying out £7.3 million in compensation last year it is little wonder that it’s Chief Executive Tim O’Toole is pleading for train operators to put in more realistic bids for future franchises. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that as more fed up passengers claim for the inconvenience and suffering caused by constant poor service, the compensation figure will eat into dividend payments they have all feasted on for too long. “The rail franchise system is clearly broken and it is time the government recognised that handing out contracts to the private sector is simply adding to the woes of Britain’s rail users,” he said. https://www.gov.uk/ government/publications /train-operating- companies-passengers-charter- compensation RAIL COMPENSATION BILL SKY ROCKETS TUBE ACTION OVER STATION STAFFING TUBE OVERCROWDING: Figures show that incidents of passengers being stopped from entering London Underground stations due to overcrowding are rising.