RMT has slammed plans to transfer some Tube Lines clerical and project staff back in-house to TfL and London Underground without pension or travel facilities, and has threatened industrial action to defend the terms and conditions of its members.
Tube union RMT has slammed plans to transfer some Tube Lines clerical and project staff back in-house to London Underground without pension or travel facilities and has threatened industrial action to defend the terms and conditions of its members.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that while proposals to re-integrate some staff into LUL may sound positive after the long-running PPP Tube privatisation fiasco, the 700 or so staff involved would not be allowed to join the TfL pension fund.
From RMT General Secretary Bob Crow
RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2010 – 2015 TUBE LINES
You will be aware that we are currently in year 4 of the 5 year pay. It was agreed that year 4 would be based on the actual RPI in January 2013 which is published in February 2013 + 0.5% or a minimum 2% whichever is the greater.
Therefore I write to advise you that the RPI figure for January 2013 was 3.3%, which means an increase in pay for this year of 3.8%, effective from 1st April 2013.
London Underground, Tubelines and Schweerbau GMBH have been fined £300,000 having plead guilty in court to endangering safety following the 2010 runaway train incident.
The incident occurred when a defective maintenance train was being towed. The trains became separated and the defective wagon rolled through seven stations of speeds of up to 30 miles per hour, coming within 600m of a passenger train. The quick response of control room staff prevented what judge Richard Hone told the court: “was the potential of terrible tragedy.”
We note the report of the well-attended meeting of our London Underground / Tube Lines ISS representatives on 20 February 2013.
The meeting identified several attacks on working conditions in addition to pay issues:
CHANGES TO TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND POSSIBLE REDUNDANCIES – MITIE (TFL CONTRACT) (LUL/14/2)
“We note the report from the Assistant General Secretary and are appalled that fraud was committed in the compilation of the business case and that this employer intends to go ahead with redundancies anyway.
We therefore instruct the General Secretary to:-
We note the report from our Regional Organiser, and that MJ Quinn is refusing to recognise RMT for those employees transferred from Emcor, despite this union’s recognition for these members when they worked for Emcor.
In accordance with our Regional Organiser’s request, we instruct the General Secretary to obtain and place in front of us legal advice on the collective bargaining and recognition arrangements being transferred from Emcor to MJ Quinn under the TUPE regulations.
London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.
We note the report of our representatives’ meeting, and further note that a meeting with the employer is due to take place on 8 March regarding our demands for travel equality, and a further meeting towards the end of March regarding our demand for pensions equality.
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We note the report from our Regional Organiser. We also note that a further meeting is to take place on 28 February, and instruct the General Secretary to place a report of this meeting in front of us.
London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.