LU SAFETY FIRST!

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2019 :: RMTnews 13 At the moment London Underground trains are prepared every 24 hours for passenger service and this prep includes many safety critical test/checks including doors, brakes and passenger safety items. This is the same for all train stocks across the London Underground combine. Yet under LU proposals these checks will no longer be carried out at a 24-hour interval and some stocks go to 96 hours while others go to monthly exam and some to even three monthly exams. The 1992TS stock on the Central line is a very problematic train which had a headline-grabbing passenger incident last year when an elderly lady got trapped in the doors and was dragged along the platform and into the tunnel. LU’s answer to this seems to be to stop checking the door chimes every 24 hours and do it monthly! In the report given to the union LU use a very woolly sentence, “possible transfer of responsibility” and despite questioning they cannot specify what this means. The company has also stated that all risk assessments have been reviewed but again despite informal and formal requests for them to produce these they have failed. There has been no valid consultation with RMT on this matter just instruction on what LU intend to do and when they intend to do it. They deny the changes will involve head count reduction but the union doubts this and see it as the thin end of the wedge and the union has not been given assurances that they will not impose the changes. Fleet branch reps have visited train ops branches to inform them of the detail to the proposed changes and the threat to their safety. Station grades reps have also been informed of this as it is clearly an attack on all-grades safety whilst at work. A meeting has taken place with the ORR and it is now looking into LULs ridiculous proposals. In short the majority of the London Underground fleet is ageing stock, some 45 years old, and now LU decide to cut safety back checks massively. RMT cannot and will not stand back and let LU do this with little or no respect for staff or travelling public’s safety, for this reason we are in dispute with the company and a ballot matrix is being prepared. LU SAFETY FIRST! A London Underground health and safety rep warns that LUL is proposing to decimate the way train maintainers have been preparing Tube trains for many years