October/November 2014

rmtbakerloobranch.org.uk @bakerloormt
Threat of strikes forces concessions:
The RMTsuspended a strike planned
for 14-16 October, and our ongoing
overtime ban, after management made
signicant concessions in talks.
These concessions do not alter the
fundamental framework of
managements Fit for the Future -
Stations cuts plans, but union
negotiators felt they were meaningful
enough to suspend the strikes while reps
and members discuss the gains weve
made.
Although the communication from
management announcing the
suspension of the strike predictably
denounced the strikes as pointless,
by listing the new commitments
management made in talks, the
company as-good-as admited that it
had been forced to change its position
because RMTthreatened strike action.
The new
concessions:
Inclusion of medically-restricted
sta in salary and location
guarantees.
Previous industrial action had forced
management to guarantee that any
worker aected by Fit for the Future
changes would not lose salary, and
anyone facing displacement would face
no more than 30 minutes additional
travelling time (still not ideal, but beter
than nothing).
However, this guarantee previously
did not include medically-restricted
sta. This meant that some workers
faced being relocated and regraded into
a role they were not physically capable
of performing, eectively forcing them
out of their job.
By extending the guarantee to
medically-restricted sta, management
has been forced to climb down from its
threat to force sta to quit.
This means RMT has now secured
salary and location protection for all
SCRAs, SAMFs, including those on
reasonable adjusments and medical
restrictions.
Management has also commited to
treat part-time sta fairly; your union
will be pushing them to honour that
commitment.
A slight reduction in job cuts,
and a commitment to reduce
further.
Throughout the station-by-station
review processes, management has
been extremely reluctant to even
consider reducing the number of jobs
they want to cut. Now they have budged
slightly, reducing the gure from 953 to
897.
This is still not good enough:RMT
remains opposed to any job cuts at all.
But budging the bosses from their
previous intransigence does represent
some progress.
Supervisors to remain within
stations negotiation/representation
structures.
As part of its proposed new stang
model, the company had wanted to
move large numbers of existing SS-grade
sta, who are covered by RMT
representation through the Stations
Function, into the managerial MATS
grade, where the union has far few reps.
That plan has now been dropped,
meaning all operational supervisors will
remain in the Stations Function, where
RMT can eectively represent them.
The demand to move to
implementation has been
dropped.
Management had wanted RMTto
agree that the negotiation and
consultation phase of the discussions
around Fit for the Future was over,
and that the implementation phase
had begun.
This would have meant that the union
would no longer be able to eectively
oppose the principles of job cuts and
ticket oce closures, and would have
been forced to limit ourselves to
quibbling over how cuts were
implemented.
By forcing management to drop this
demand, we keep the dispute alive and
maintain our ability to challenge the
fundamentals of the Fit for the Future
plan, not just how its implemented.
These are all things we didnt have
before we planned to strike, which we
have now won. That should remind us
of the potential power we have, and
encourage us to ght for more.
The Fit for the Future proposals are
still nowhere near looking like anything
RMTcould accept or support. We
remain opposed to cuts and closures
that we know will make the job harder
for sta and the service worse for
passengers.
Get involved in your branch to
discuss how to take the Every Job
Maters campaign forward, and
discuss what action we can take to push
management back further.
Keep fighting to win more!
LU workers and RMT members
Alex McGuigan, Noel Roberts,
and Vicky Hayward has been
unjustly sacked by the company.
Alex, a Northern Line driver with
29 years service, failed a
breathalyser test, but management
failed to follow its own procedures
and follow up the test by testing a
urine sample for alcohol (it was
only tested for drugs). They also
failed to take into account Alexs
medical conditions, which can give
false positives for alcohol.
Noel Roberts, from East Ham,
has been medically terminated,
despite having been back at work
(after a period of sickness) for
months, and despite being declared
by everyone from his own GSM to
LUs own Occupational Health
department as being t to work.
Vicky Hayward, from Central Line
East, was sacked on the basis of
manager statements relating to
CCTVevidence they had seen,
which she and her rep were not
allowed to accessed... and which
had in fact been destroyed!
These sackings are all unjust, and
represent abuses of LUs own
procedures. Management is clearly
trying to create an atmosphere in
which summary and authoritarian
sackings and disciplinary
procedures are used to intimidate
workers into keeping our heads
down.
RMTwill not tolerate these
injustices, and is ghting for
reinstatement for Alex, Noel, and
Vicky. If management are allowed
to get away with sacking workers
in this manner, none of us are
safe.
Justice for Alex,
Noel, and Vicky!
Reinstatement
now!
Bakerloo News is a monthly
newsletter from the Bakerloo
branch of the RMT union. The
branch meets on the first
Monday of every month at 1600
at the Red Lion Pub on Kingly
Street (W1B 5PR). All members
are welcome. To submit a story
for Bakerloo News, or to contact
the branch, please email
bakerlooline@rmt.org.uk
BRANCH
UPDATES
CSA Daniel Randall has been elected
Industrial rep for the Oxford Circus
Group. Members can contact him on
07961040618.
We are looking for new Industrial
reps on the Wembley Central and
Piccadilly Circus groups; if you are
interested in standing, please email
bakerlooline@rmt.org.uk.
Octobers branch meeting passed
resolutions in support of the National
Campaign Against Fees & Cuts 19
November demonstration for free
education, and the Focus E15 mothers
campaign for social housing. For more
information, see anticuts.com and
bit.ly/focus-e15.
The branch nominated Derek
Bishop for election to Trains Safety
Council, Gwyn Pugh for re-election to
Trains Upgrades Council, Toyo
Oyediji for Stations Safety Council,
and Sarah Roberts and Jared Wood for
election to Stations Functional
Council.
Have you been to an atendance-related
LDI(Local Disciplinary Interview)
recently? Have you looked closely at
the paperwork?
The company has recently taken it
upon itself to include your ve year
sickness record in the LDI brief; thats
right, your FIVE YEAR record.
According to LUs logic, the inclusion of
the record allows your manager to take
any absence in the last ve years into
account when coming to her or his
decision
The RMT not only oppose this, but has
an existing agreement at Company
Council that this should not happen.
There is nothing in the companys
Atendance At Work policy that allows
management at your workplace to do
this. But they are doing. Standard
practise at atendance LDIs is that,
unless your rep brings up your previous
record (and even then it can only go
back TWO years), it is not referred to.
Simple.
So what can we do? If this has
happened to you, a colleague, or a
member youve represented, raise it
with your local rep and bring it up at
your Bakerloo branch meeting. Reps.
should add this issue to their next Level
One agenda, demand the practice stops,
and refer it to the next level of the
machinery if necessary.
It is an absolute point of principle
that this double jeopardy stops!
Managements five-
year plan for LDIs?
Local management atempted to
introduce lone working at Stonebridge
Park for late-shift detrainments.
Your union knows that this is not
acceptable; the presence of security
guards on the station does not constitute
the right support for detrainment tasks.
Following opposition from RMT reps
and members, lone working was
withdrawn, and late-shift detrainments
will be carried out by fully-trained LU
sta.
We need properly staed stations to
be able to deliver our service. This
episode shows that, when we stand
together, we can improve workplace
conditions.
Wembley Central RMT reps have also
demanded full involvment in risk
assessments around the deployment of
LU and LOROLWheelchair Assistance
ramps, in order to ensure that no
workers are injured in carrying out this
task.
In case of accident and incidents,
your reps ask that, where you are
unable to complete an EIRF, ask for a
paper one, ll it, and send it to your
SS/DSM for processing.
RMT beats lone working at
Stonebridge Park