RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2021 :: RMTnews

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2021 :: RMTnews 8 GROWTH: Offshore wind turbines and support vessel near Caister. R MT has warned the Scottish government that it was ill prepared to reach its net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 and a fundamental transformation of the economy following the publication of Just Transition Commission’s final report. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that the Just Transition Commission’s report was a step in the right direction but the pace had to be speeded up. “Just transition plans for local jobs in offshore wind and decarbonising public transport and skills guarantees, including for the self- employed, are welcome but the industry is currently ill- prepared to deliver. “Trade unions must be at the heart of work that must start immediately to take advantage of the Just Transition Commission’s valuable work. “The application of IR-35 in the North Sea and the protracted squabble between training standards bodies are just two areas that will have an increasingly detrimental effect on offshore oil and gas workers, after a year in which over 12,000 jobs have been lost,” he said. T he union has written to the government to demand that it uses its powers to prevent pandemic profiteering after rail giant Go-Ahead announced its intention to pay a dividend, In a statement the company said: “The Board continues to work towards paying a dividend at an appropriate level in the 2021 calendar year”. In a parliamentary question the rail minister has said, for the duration of the rail Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs):“that payment of dividends may not be made without the Secretary of State’s consent”. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was utterly unacceptable for Go-Ahead to be planning a dividend on the backs of emergency tax payer funding and also rail workers who have been told they have to accept a two year pay freeze. “We have written to the government to say they should use their powers to block this dividend and indeed the overall profits other rail companies stand to make, and instead give our rail staff the pay rise they deserve as essential workers. “The announcement by Go-Ahead is pandemic profiting ultimately cooked up and sanctioned by the Treasury and we will also demanding a meeting with Rishi Sunak  the  architect of the pay freeze. “It’s time to freeze their profits, not our rail workers pay,” he said.  The GTR rail company is operated by Govia, of which Go–Ahead is a 65 per cent majority owner and GTR has an Emergency Recovery Measures Agreement (ERMA) until September. Govia also owns South Eastern which is operating under an Emergency Measures Agreement until October 2020. This does not currently allow the payment of dividends, but the operator is a paid a management fee which can be used to accrue profits and therefore could be used to pay a dividend in the future.  Following a Parliamentary Question Grahame Morris MP asking the Secretary of State for Transport about what restrictions he plans to place on the payment of dividends as a condition of the Emergency Recovery Management Agreements, he said that that payment of dividends may not made without the Secretary of State’s consent. “Consent to the payment of a Permitted Dividend will not be unreasonably withheld or delayed, subject to franchisees fulfilling their financial obligations under the ERMAs to the satisfaction of the Secretary of State and complying with their Companies Act obligations. For any franchisee year the Permitted Dividend will be limited to the value of the fees paid to the franchisee net of Corporation Tax,” he said. JUST TRANSITION COMMISSION’S FINAL REPORT FOR SCOTLAND GO-AHEAD PROFITEERING RMT calls on government to act against pandemic profiteering