RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE, NIGHT RUNNING AND PENSIONS TUBE LINES AP JNP (LUL/0001/TL)

Further to my previous Circular (IR/029/16, 5th February 2016) the meeting with Tube Lines Reps, the Senior Assistant General Secretary, National Executive Committee and Lead Officer took place at Unity House on Tuesday 23rd February to discuss Pay, Night Tube and Pensions.

Pay & Night Tube

Following a recent referendum of LUL members, the offer from London Underground in respect of Pay & Night Tube was accepted and the Company has been informed accordingly however, the offer from Tube Lines AP JNP in respect of Night Tube has been REJECTED. Although the offer from each Company is very similar, there are some important differences in the Tube Lines offer which are unacceptable to RMT.

Firstly, the wording in the LUL offer refers to an “all-night passenger service operation on a Friday and Saturday night”, whereas the Tube Lines offer refers to “a 24-hour passenger service operation”. We sought clarification on this point and management admitted that acceptance would mean agreeing to the principle of 24-hour running any night – this could mean running more than 2 nights at Bank Holidays or Special Events.

Secondly, LUL has recruited more staff where additional resources are needed (e.g. additional Night Tube CSAs and new ‘part time’ Train Operators). The position from Tube Lines is that all staff have to work on Night Tube and all rosters will be changed to reflect this: “Full implementation of the Sunday to Thursday rosters to support Night Tube Operations”. The response from RMT is that Tube Lines members should also be given the same opportunities as BCV and LUL workers and allowed to opt out and if necessary move to SSL Lines.

Pensions

As you will recall, since Tube Lines came under the umbrella of TfL in 2011 our representatives have been demanding that former Tube Lines employees are given the same pension and travel rights as other LUL employees. In respect of the latter this has been concluded but due to managements’ stance, pensions are yet to be resolved.

After lengthy discussions on cost efficiencies to pay for pensions for all Tube Lines members an agreement and time scale was agreed between the RMT, Tube Lines, LUL & TFL in 2015. However management demanded that a no strike clause be added to the agreement.

Although we were in discussions with TFL/LUL/TLL, talks were halted when LUL started pay negotiations and since then they have refused to talk to the RMT about your pensions. Tube Lines management are now demanding that the pay offer is accepted and Night Tube is launched and running successfully before they will reopen discussions on pensions.

The National Executive Committee has considered this matter and taken the decision to declare a new dispute situation and ballot all Tube Lines members over Pensions, Pay & Night Tube. Previous recent ballots no longer apply and due to previous challenges from the Company over the validity of our notice of ballot in respect of members’ job details it is necessary for us to carry out further checks. I would therefore ask all Branches to ensure that we have the correct membership details for all Tube Lines members.

I will keep you advised of all further developments.