London Underground Ltd

TUBE UNION RMT today welcomed a major breakthrough in an on-going dispute with London Underground which will see the company sticking to agreed policies on redundancies, protecting the futures of a thousand staff who had been identified as being at risk.

The dispute, which was at the heart of the 48 hour tube strike earlier this year, has led to long hours of direct negotiation both face to face and through ACAS.

Bob Crow RMT general secretary said today:

The attached two posters show clearly how the pay offers from London Underground and Transport for London - of a measly 1.5% this year (with an even more measly 0.5% in following years) - will not cover the real rising cost of living. In other words, it is a pay cut.

Please note that this document is London Underground's policy not RMT's! We publish it here for information, not because we endorse it!

A key part of this document is in Section 2: 2. Staff Who Take Industrial Action Shifts lost through official industrial action will NOT count under the Attendance at Work procedure. Staff covered by the industrial action who do not attend for work and who are not sick or on leave should be recorded on SAP, as appropriate, under the code for Industrial Action Official.

I am writing regarding the latest position in negotiations with LUL and TfL over pay, the 'jobs for life' deal and bullying of our members.

Talks at ACAS have broken down because management have refused to discuss pay and bullying. The 'jobs for life' deal has been discussed but despite this deal being signed off by Gordon Brown and guaranteed by John Prescott management are refusing point blank to abide by it.

We have had another Goebbels-like piece of propaganda in senior management's 'Heads Up' communiqué stating that there are now only 70 jobs at risk and there were over 250 vacancies. If this were true then management could easily guarantee everyone at least one alternative job: why then are they not prepared to do this?

London Underground seems to think that it is OK for a manager to deal with staff grievances against him/herself! Not only is this self-evidently unfair, it also breaches ACAS rules. If your manager tries this, please use the following quotes to insist that the grievance is dealt with by a different manager.

The ACAS guide to discipline and grievances at work (which you can download in full here), states on page 44 that:

Below is the company's (not the union's!) guidance on swine flu. Comments welcome!

Please find below our current response and actions you should take for staff that report sick with swine flu or flu like symptoms. This advice supersedes all previous advice with immediate effect. Please cascade this as necessary.

Employees that can prove that they had actual swine flu, and proof will be either a GP certificate or evidence of having been prescribed Tamiflu must be recorded as sick explanation accepted. This is strictly for those with proof. The SAP code for this is 160.

TRANSPORT UNION RMT warned today that services in London are staring down the barrel of a £6 billion funding gap which threatens to wreck modernisation schedules and plans for the 2012 Olympics while leaving thousands of jobs under threat.

The warning comes on the day that a new London Assembly report points to a £1.7 billion transport income gap as a result of the recession which it predicts will open up between now and 2018.

Download a copy of this Strike Special newsletter by clicking on the link below.

London Underground has today tabled a revised pay offer:

• Year 1: 1.5%
• Year 2: RPI+0.5%