Govia Thameslink Railway Dispute The Facts

Why are the RMT taking strike action?

The Union has been left with no choice. This dispute is over safety and in July we offered
to suspend calling industrial action for three months if the company suspended
introducing their proposals in August. The company have refused to do this.

We have written to the new Secretary of State for Transport and the new Rail Minister to
ask for an early meeting in order to find a resolution to this dispute. The union has not
received a response but note that Rt Hon. Chris Grayling MP and Paul Maynard MP have
already met GTR officials and Go-Ahead Chief Executive David Brown.

We continue to receive mixed messages. The former rail minister told a committee of MPs
one thing that may have formed the basis of progress. But the new rail minister told MPs
something completely different.

Senior DfT official Peter Wilkinson seemed to set the tone for GTRs handling of this dispute
when he told a public meeting in Corydon in January that trade union members on
Southern GTR ...cant afford to spend too long on strike and I will push them into that
place. They will have to decide if they want to give a good service or get the hell out of
my industry.

Even former Rail Minister Claire Perry MP criticised GTRs industrial relations, in evidence to
the Transport Select Committee on 11th July: I put on record, as I said on the radio this
morning, that the companys handling of some of their industrial relations could have
been better.

Progress will only be made through talks involving the union, GTR and the Government.
The significant progress made in Scotland toward a settlement of the DCO dispute on
ScotRail services clearly demonstrates this.

Whats the dispute about - Passenger Safety

Driver and Conductor operation of trains means that a safety critical Conductor, in
addition to the driver will always be on the train and the train is not allowed to leave
without both the Driver and Conductor. This means that passengers are guaranteed that
there will always be a Conductor to protect the safety of the train and passengers and
also assist passengers in the event of an incident, accident or emergency.

The dispute has arisen because Govia Thameslink Railways (GTR) who are part owned by
French State Railways, wish to end Driver and Conductor Operation and extend Driver
Only Operation (DOO) to all GTR services. The term Driver Only Operation has become so
toxic with passengers GTR have renamed their proposals Driver Controlled Operation
(DCO), but the proposals are the same.

Driver Only Operation will mean that trains will be able to leave with only the Driver and
without a safety critical Conductor and even when there is a second member of staff on
board they will not be safety critical and will have less safety skills and training.

So this dispute is not about pay or conditions. RMT members are taking strike action and
losing pay because they are concerned about passenger safety.

The Government is giving out contradictory messages over the future for the safety
critical role for the guard/conductor. Claire Perry told the Transport Select Committee on
11th July: What I have told the unions today, and repeat to the Committee, is that
throughout the duration of this franchise and into the next franchise we will ensure that
that safety critical role is maintained. Yet the newly appointed Rail Minister, Paul
Maynard MP flatly contradicted this statement in evidence to the same committee nine
days later: We can give assurances to the RMT about the future employability of the
workforce in onboard customer roles. They will be safety trained, but they will not be
safety critical. It is very important that if, for whatever reason, a train does not have the
full complement of two safety-critical staff, that train can still depart the station...

GTR are deliberately misleading passengers when they say that DOO / DCO is safe just
because it is in operation elsewhere. What they are not telling passengers is that the
increased risk to passengers of DOO has even been recognised by the Rail Safety
Standards Board (RSSB) which is funded by GTR and other Train Operating Companies.
RSSB have said DOO does not create additional undesired events but may increase the
likelihood of an event occurring or increase the severity of its consequence.

As well as misleading passengers about the risks of DOO GTR are pursuing a policy that is
behind the times and ignores the reality of the modern railway. Despite being first
introduced in the 1980s DOO is still only in use on a third of the national rail network.
Since that time however there has been a massive increase in passengers. For example,
in the last 15 years alone passenger numbers on Southern have increased by over 64%
from 116.1million to 191 million a year. This huge rise in passenger numbers inevitably
increases the risk to passenger safety at the platform / train interface and with more
passengers we obviously need more staff, not less.

Even RSSB have had to acknowledge concerns because it is objectively the case that
passengers are more at risk if they no longer have the guarantee of a safety critical
Conductor on their train to prevent something going wrong or assist when something
does go wrong.

For example, if there is a fire on a DOO train and there is no longer a highly trained
Conductor to deal with the situation passengers are at more risk. In the event of train
evacuation, derailment or driver incapacity the absence of the Conductor means
passengers are again more at risk.

If a passenger gets trapped in the doors and there is no Conductor, the risk to the
passenger is greater. An example of such an incident is where a passenger was dragged
along a platform by a DOO service after getting caught in the doors. In response the
official Rail Accident Investigation Branch has said a comprehensive final safety check

as required by the Rule Book is always necessary after [Door] interlock has been
obtained. This being the case, RMT and ASLEF are minded to inform our members
working DOO services that a comprehensive final safety check should be that the
driver physically leaves the cab and checks each door before departure. We have
sought an urgent meeting with all Train Operating Companies to discuss this issue.
The Guarantee of a Conductor on all services

GTR are also misleading passengers when they claim that they will still have a second
member of staff on board. We have asked the company for a guarantee that all trains
that currently have a Conductor will continue to run with a second member of staff on
board. GTR would not provide that guarantee, even when the service is running
normally.

As a result, the company is not offering anything like the level of protection provided to
passengers on nonDOO services, which guarantee that passengers have a Conductor
on-board who is fully trained in safety-critical standards and procedures.

All the evidence shows that once DOO is introduced, passengers eventually end up
losing the protection of the trained second rail worker on their train. It is also important to
note that even if there is a second member of staff on the train they will not have the
same rigorous safety training (and retraining) requirements as the Conductor.

Thus the RSSB let the cat out of the bag when they admitted that the attractions of DOO
are based on savings rather than safety. Specifically RSSB commented that savings
come from employing fewer staff, and from replacing guards (Conductors) with
cheaper non-safety critical on-train staff (NSCOS) and that Safety critical training for
guards would no longer be required, which would reduce the training requirement from
12 weeks to 4 weeks for the second staff member on board.

Again, the Government is giving out contradictory messages over the future for the
safety critical role for the guard/conductor. Claire Perry told the Transport Select
Committee on 11th July: What I have told the unions today, and repeat to the
Committee, is that throughout the duration of this franchise and into the next franchise
we will ensure that that safety critical role is maintained. Yet the newly appointed Rail
Minister, Paul Maynard MP flatly contradicted this statement in evidence to the same
committee nine days later: We can give assurances to the RMT about the future
employability of the workforce in onboard customer roles. They will be safety trained, but
they will not be safety critical. It is very important that if, for whatever reason, a train does
not have the full complement of two safety-critical staff, that train can still depart the
station...

Passenger assurance and assistance

It is also objectively the case that if there is no longer the guarantee of a Conductor on
all services, disabled passengers will be disadvantaged, especially at unstaffed stations
and should on the train, should there be an emergency. Passengers with disabilities will

be disadvantaged when there is no longer the guarantee of a second trained rail worker
on the train to assist.

This is particularly the case when many GTR stations are unstaffed. Disability groups have
voiced their opposition to DOO and it is not clear whether GTR and the Government
have met their equality obligations.

The guarantee of a second trained rail worker is also essential for providing assurance
and deterring anti - social behavior.

A recent independent poll conducted by Opinium found that 81% of Southern GTR
passengers who use the service every day would be concerned about the safety of
travelling on trains that no longer had an on-board train Conductor.

So why are GTR seeking to impose DOO?

One word, profit. If they can remove the Conductors then they can cut the number of
staff on trains and pay on - train staff less in the long term. Some of the profits are then
siphoned off to one of GTRs owners, French State railway SNCF.

There is also a hidden agenda to break the unions on GTR. Before the current dispute,
the Remedial Plan or emergency timetable, senior DfT official Peter Wilkinson stated at a
public meeting in Croydon in January, Over the next three years we're going to be
having punch ups and we will see industrial action and I want your support. And that
trade union members on Southern ...cant afford to spend too long on strike and I will
push them into that place. They will have to decide if they want to give a good service
or get the hell out of my industry.

GTR have also sought to hide their real agenda by asserting that trains are being
delayed because Conductors have responsibility for operating the doors. But both
parliamentary questions and freedom of information requests have established that
there is in fact no evidence to support their argument.

Indeed it is likely that the opposite is the case because the Conductor in control of the
doors means that problems that may be causing delays are more easily identified and
dealt with and passengers encouraged to join the trains more promptly and reduce
what is termed as dwell time at stations.

Another smokescreen deployed by GTR has been to argue that trains are being
cancelled due to lack of available conductors. However, no evidence has been
provided for this and indeed if anything it is a shortage of drivers with which GTR is
struggling. In any event total train crew planning would mean Drivers and Conductors
worked the same services and this would alleviate any problems in this area.

The facts are that the speed of trains, if they are delayed or affected by overcrowding,
passenger assistance issues and the quality of rolling stock, infrastructure and signaling,
which are undermining the service, and not the Conductor operating the doors.

A modern railway that improves passenger service and safety

It is welcome and long overdue that new trains are to be introduced on our railway.
However, if GTR and the Government really do want a second trained person on the
train, in addition to the driver, it is clearly a false economy to deskill that role by removing
train protection and safety skills and responsibilities.

The new trains are configured to allow for conductor operation. Passengers and
taxpayers will have more bang for their buck if the second person is a Conductor who,
as well as revenue protection and providing passenger protection and assurance, is
trained in operational safety and route knowledge. This includes being able to safely
secure the doors, protecting the train and acting in emergencies. In fact there are 35
areas of safety responsibility guards have to undergo extensive training and re-training
for. Whats more, Conductors are required to hold detailed knowledge of the routes on
which they work, and an understanding of signalling systems. And that knowledge has to
be refreshed every two years with stringent exams.

And it is not only passenger safety and service that will be affected by DOO, so will our
economy and communities. The role of Conductor is a relatively well paid rail job. DOO
means hundreds of decent rail jobs will be under threat, deskilled and casualised. Cuts to
rail jobs are always a false economy.

GTR breach of service level

Following poor and declining Southern GTR services since July 2015, GTR and DfT agreed
and introduced a Remedial Plan for Southern services in February 2016. This was not
made public until May. Even so, GTRs service performance against this plan, which predates the industrial dispute continued to be in breach of agreed service levels and the
company unilaterally introduced an Emergency Timetable from 11th July.

At the same time as designing an Emergency Timetable, GTR appear to have submitted
a claim to DfT of Force Majeure. This was confirmed in a Written Answer to Kelvin
Hopkins MP of 11th July: Under the Franchise Agreement, where GTR can provide the
evidence that cancellations are due to official or unofficial industrial action, they can
claim Force Majeure which they have done. We believe that by applying for Force
Majeure, GTR is trying to exploit our members legitimate industrial action in order to clear
the company of breaching the Remedial Plan.

Peter Wilkinsons evidence to the Transport Select Committee on 20th July suggested that
the DfT is still considering GTRs Force Majeure application: It is for the operator to make
the application [for Force Majeure] and for the department to consider the application...
I dont think we have invoked force majeure at this time.

During the Southern Rail adjournment debate on 13th July, shortly before her resignation,
the former Rail Minister Claire Perry MP said that she did not have the levers to remove
the franchise from GTR: ...we have a contractual structure and there are a series of
inputs and outputs. The company is not in breach of them. People ask what happened
with Directly Operated Railways. The franchise was handed back to the Government by
East Coast. In such circumstances we can take it back in-house and do something with
it, but at the moment I do not have the levers to pull to take the franchise back.

However, the evidence above points to the Government having the power to take the
Southern Franchise off GTR for franchise breach if they reject GTRs application for Force
Majeure.

The problems affecting the franchise are entirely of GTRs making and claims of unofficial
industrial action are completely bogus. We should remember that Claire Perry herself
accused GTR of poor industrial relations and Peter Wilkinson had previously warned of a
need for a punch up with the trade unions.

We hope you would agree that it would not be reasonable to Southern passengers if the
Department agreed to GTRs requests to exempt it from breach of contract as it will
reduce the Departments options for dealing with GTR.

Staff sickness

GTR and the Government have repeatedly tried to blame the decline in its passenger
services on staff sickness and unofficial action by RMT members. The union does not hold
sickness records as we are not the employer and we categorically refute absolutely any
accusations of unofficial action. GTR have not provided any evidence as to what has
caused them to reduce rail services by 15% (on top of the Remedial Plan cuts) and our
fundamental concern is that the DfT seem set to accept the companys pejorative
claims against our members without question.

We hope you will also agree that GTR scapegoating its own staff should stop
immediately. The shocking audio evidence released by the BBC last week of GTR staff
being spat at, punched and threatened with stabbing, due to a constant barrage of
company lies about the reasons for the chaos across the franchise fully justifies this
demand.

What can you do to help?

Please ask GTR and the Government three questions.
1. Will they simply agree that passengers retain the guarantee of safety critical Conductor
operation?
2. When the application for Force Majeure was submitted by GTR to DfT?
3. Will the Government now reject the Force Majeure application from GTR and take the
Southern franchise back in house?
More information
This briefing was produced by the Rail Maritime and Transport Union. Updated 2nd August 2016.
For more information contact info@rmt.org.uk