Your Legal Rights - Safety

1) The principal safety legislation in the land, the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (Section 7) states:

The employee has a duty in:

“taking reasonable care for your own health & safety and that of others who may be affected by what you do or don’t do”

2) Under the Employment Rights Act 1996, as amended, employees have the right not to be dismissed, selected for redundancy or subjected to any detriment on the following grounds:

Save Vestas Wind Turbine Plant

Below is the message of support from RMT London Transport Regional Council to the 'Save Vestas' campaign. You can keep up-to-date with the campaign by clicking here.

I am writing to give my full support to the campaign to save the Vestas wind turbine plant on the Isle of Wight.

Prine Minister Gordon Brown has stated that we need 'green jobs' both to tackle the recession and to save the environment. If he does not act to save Vestas, his words will be shown to be meaningless and hypocritical. The government should bring Vestas into public ownership, and run it democratically in the interests of working-class people and the future of our world.

MATS staff: Defend Your Job, Defend Your Rights

An RMT member writes ...

MATS, if you are a M, SM, Technical or AD grade then the OCR is coming for you. LU Employee Relations have just ripped up the protection you thought you had under annexe H of the PPP contract and you are now eligible for Compulsory Redundancy.

Whether you are an Engineer, Document controller, CAD Draftsperson, Accountant, Quantity Surveyor, Project Manager, Architect, Site Surveyor, Buyer, Technical Writer, Planner or PA you are expendable as you are, in Gerry Duffy's words, "just back-room staff".

Ex Silverlink stations: Management attack core role of Station Supervisor

London Underground management are trying to whittle away the core roles of a Station Supervisor by creating a part-qualified Supervisor grade on the ex-Silverlink stations. RMT believes that this is both unfair on the staff who will take up these Supervisor jobs and a threat to the Station Supervisor grade in general. We are insisting that all Station Supervisor grades must continue to receive the full core Supervisor training and not be de-skilled.

Resolution: Economic Crisis

This resolution, submitted by LU Fleet branch, was passd unanimously by the August meeting of the Regional Council.

Branch notes:

That the economic crisis, internationally and domestically, is leading to soaring unemployment, insecurity and devastation of communities.

UK unemployment is well over 2 million and headed sharply upwards. But much worse is to come. Nearly half a million people have now been unemployed for at least 12 months.

Leaflet: Swine Flu Update

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download a joint RMT/TSSA leaflet on swine flu from your London Underground Stations & Revenue Health & Safety Council reps. Read the text below.

Influenza A (H1N1) – Swine Flu Update.

“...once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges, its further international spread is unstoppable”. Dr Margaret Chan, WHO

"National incidence of influenza-like illness increased for all regions and is now evident in all age groups." Royal College of GPs

Facts about Pay and Inflation

If you want to keep up with the latest statistics on pay settlements, inflation and other employment-related facts, you could try looking at the IDS website.

One fact it will tell you is that median pay settlements are currently running at 2% - a full 0.5% higher than LUL and TfL's current offers. ['Median' is one type of average, found by arranging the values in order and then selecting the one in the middle.]