STATION STAFFING - LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/14/5)

The Lead Officer has reported that LUL still continues to seek to reorganise and reduce headcount across stations. RMT members took strike action in 2023 under the Defending Jobs & Agreements dispute which was resolved at the time in terms of the impact on stations but since that time, we have experienced a failure to fill vacancies at the same time as passenger levels now exceeding pre-covid period at times, which has led to a chronic state of understaffing on stations and in the revenue department.

As a result of understaffing, management are reluctant to allow station staff to move on promotion, mainly because of unfilled vacancies within their existing group. This obviously impacts many station staff who seek promotion. We have also witnessed management increasingly putting jobs out to external contract, which breaches our LUL Main Agreement requirement to exhaust promotional opportunities first.

It seems London Underground is seeking to move away from the assurance given in the formal dispute resolution proposal from 2023, which guarantees that every CSA2 will be offered to CSA1 within 12 months of starting in that role.

Station staff members also report that fatigue and fear of workplace violence and assault have increased significantly over recent years. We have raised the need to address staffing numbers and end lone working previously with the London Mayor, but this remains outstanding and has yet to be addressed by TfL/LUL.

This matter has been considered by the National Executive Committee and in line with its decision, I have written to LUL to seek the following commitments to address and resolve this chronic understaffing by agreeing to the following points:

• Return to the full revenue establishment level
• Fully review all LUL station rosters to identify where additions are needed to the existing establishment level with a view to massively reduce lone working and fatigue caused by extreme rosters.
• Fully staff LU stations to establishment level
• Maintain our agreement on promoting new CSA2s to CSA1 within 12 months
• Offer promotional jobs to existing staff in line with the main agreement

The NEC has declared that if the above assurances and discussions are not forthcoming, then the Union will be in dispute with LUL over these matters. I will of course keep Branches advised of all further developments.