Defending and improving conditions

INTRODUCTION OF AGENCY TRAINERS, FLEET – LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/13/2)

RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2015 – INTERSERVE FACILITIES (KEOLIS AMEY DOCKLANDS CONTRACT) (DLR/0001/I(KAD))

In line with Union policy, a claim was submitted for a substantial increase in rates of pay and improvements to conditions of service. Following discussions with the Company, a report was received from the Lead Officer along with further correspondence from the Branch Secretary, advising that the Company has failed to resolve several issues which have been outstanding for many months.

REVIEW OF DISCIPLINARY AND GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE – LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/4/4) Further to my previous Circular (IR/432/13, 25th July 2013), this matter has been listed on the LUL Company Council agenda where we raised the issue that having the same PMA present at a CDI and any associated appeal created an unfair bias in the process. The involvement of PMAs in the disciplinary process has been disputed by RMT for some years now as we see it as an additional management resource.

Pay negotiations update from RMT Regional Organiser John Leach.

This afternoon I attended talks with RMT senior functional reps and Directors of LUL.

Members will know that the company so far have offered a two year pay deal 2015 ..0.50% and 2016 RPI and two one off payments of £250 for night tube.

At todays meeting the company have marginally revised the offer to:

2015...0.75%(1/4 %increase)
2016 ..RPI

So over the two years the offer has been moved by a mere 0.25%!

SUPPORT FITTER GRADE – LONDON UNDERGROUND (LUL/2/2)

Discussions with the Company have taken place regarding the entry level grade within the Electrical Team in the Stations and Structural Maintenance Function and in particular whether the role should be Support Fitter or Support Technician. Your Union claimed that staff in the Electrical Team were subject to the Signals Framework Agreement and the entry level grade within that Agreement was the Support Technician role.

WITHDRAWAL OF REST DAYS, TRACK & CIVILS STAFF – TUBELINES (AP JNP) (LUL/8/6)

Further to my previous Circular (IR/081/15, 23rd March 2015), the referendum has concluded with members voting as follows:-

Question: Are you prepared to accept the Company’s offer?

Total Votes Cast… 46
Number Voting ‘Yes’… 7
Number Voting ‘No’… 39
Spoilt Papers… 0

Referring to my previous Circular (IR/061/15, 2nd March 2015), Branches will recall that a resolution was received from our LU Engineering Branch advising that Tube Lines were imposing changes to our members’ terms and conditions. The General Grades Committee has considered this resolution and instructed me to write to Tube Lines to demand that these arrangements are not imposed and to conduct a referendum of the affected members with a recommendation to reject the proposals. The changes referred to are as follows:-

This week, after months of talks, your TFC reps, along with their Aslef colleagues, were finally in a position to put a joint proposal on rostering Night Tube to LUL trains management. This followed a decision at Company Council to review the impact of Night Tube on all members of staff.

RMT campaigning has forced cleaning company Interserve to commit to hiring 50 AGS agency cleaners on permanent contracts across London Underground by the end of April 2015.

This shows that union campaigning gets results. Our exposure of AGS’s exploitative practises, such as forcing workers to register as “self-employed”, is putting pressure on Interserve. Let’s keep up the fight and win more permanent contracts for cleaners.

A resolution was recently received from Jubilee South Branch regarding the above and this matter has been considered by the General Grades Committee, which has taken the decision to investigate the use of “disguised employees” by Interserve and other companies in TfL/LUL (reference LUL Engineers Charter and article by GS in January RMT News ‘Fighting Casualisation’) and to produce a report on this worrying pract