REMEMBER CLAPHAM

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2023 :: RMTnews 18 35 years on from the Clapham rail disaster which killed 35 people, RMT is warning that the railway network remains chronically understaffed, underfunded and reliant on safety critical staff working excessive overtime. At 8:10 am on the morning of December 12, 1988, a crowded commuter train, the ‘Poole’ service, ran head-on into the rear of another train which was stationary in a cutting just south of Clapham Junction station. After that impact the first train veered to its right and struck a third oncoming train, fortunately there were no passengers on this stock movement. As a result of the accident 35 people died and nearly 500 were injured, 69 of them seriously. The resulting inquiry into the crash, chaired by Anthony Hidden, found that the primary cause to be wiring errors made by a rail worker who’d had only one day off in 13 weeks and that a culture of excessive hours was to blame. The Inquiry’s recommendations included important points on training, competence and areas designed to address the underlying causes of management failures that were ultimately responsible for the accident. Many think that the Hidden inquiry also made recommendations on hours railway workers were allowed to work and that those hours were clearly set out. In fact, Hidden only made a recommendation to “ensure that overtime is monitored so that no individual is working excessive levels of overtime”. That is all he said. Nothing about shift length, nothing about rest between shifts, nothing about maximum hours in a week and absolutely nothing about any number of consecutive days worked. It was the industry itself who dreamt that up and called them the Hidden Rules as if they had been reached by some sort of scientific analysis of the risks and hazards of working long hours and developed a clearly defined set of parameters that would ensure worker safety. Far from it, what they came up with was a set of limits which was the maximum they could get away with. The Hidden limits were: no more than 12 hours in a shift; at least 12 hours rest between shifts; no more than 72 hours in any seven-day period and no more than 13 consecutive days without a day off. And even then, these weren’t set maximum hours as if the “exigencies of the service” required it that they could be broken. Clapham showed why fatigue and limiting workers hours are essential to control safety but there are many reasons for long working hours not least of which is workers’ rates of pay. Poorly paid workers, workers blighted by austerity, need to work longer hours to make ends meet. There is a lot of evidence REMEMBER CLAPHAM Fatigue and safety remain an issue 35 years after Clapham rail disaster