Finsbury Park News - August 14

8/11/2019 Finsbury Park News - August 14

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London Underground would have us believe that

fairness is one of the five behaviours expected ofall staff. Really? A driver at Arnos Grove raised a

grievance against a Duty Manager who forced him

onto overtime by giving him false information andfailing to use any of the available spares. The

evidence was strong, with radio and phone

messages obtained and listened to by the

investigating manager, all of which showed what

the DTSM had done. Despite this, the investigatingmanager decided that, although errors had been

made by the manager, he could not conclude that hehad acted maliciously. This ludicrous and self-

serving decision was upheld by the TOM at appeal.

A different grievance was raised by a driver on the

last day of strike action earlier in the year. Healleged that a picket had been abusive towards him

when they met at a railway station on their

respective journeys home. In this case there was noverifiable evidence, only one personsword against

the other. However, the same manager (by acoincidence) who had investigated the first

grievance and found nothing malicious in theactions of the accused DTSM, decided to suspend

the picket from duty and subject him to a Drug and

Alcohol Test (which proved negative). After

thorough investigations (so thorough that no-oneeven bothered to interview the

Picketswife who was the only other witness to the

incident), the picket was told that he would be sent

to a CDI where he could be sacked. This unsettling

and frankly disgraceful period was finally broughtto a close after some excellent behind-the -scenes

work by RMT reps backed with the full support of

the branch with a request for ballot for industrial

action should our member be disciplined. Thepicket has now been returned to work after a

worrying period of over 2 months.Fairness? These managers dont know the meaningof the word. It seems that with grievances, its not

about whats right its about who raises the

grievance and whos on the end of It If you raise agrievance against a manager, you need to show himholding a smoking gun with a corpse lying at his

feet. Even then, the investigating manager wil

probably conclude that he acted in self-defence!

ROUND TH E BRANCH REPS REPORTS

Zehra Nazim Brixton

Hello all. The beginning of this year was very difficulfor me and I was off the trains while dealing withsome health issues. Although I was off the trains was, as some of you know, still dealing with unionduties. Some of these duties included the newtimetable, the roster and allocation and driversmoving to Seven Sisters. There are going to be somemore drivers coming into Brixton but we will not be atfull complement until these drivers are fully qualified.

There have been some concerns about nights notbeing covered. I have asked management about thisand the response was that this is due to coverage andcancelations, and that it was better suited to coveduties during the day and leave the night uncovered.If anyone needs more information please contact me.So as we now stand; we're 17 drivers down from theold timetable. Now that the new duty books havebeen issued a couple of issues have

Finsbury Park

Branch

All grades united in one common object August 2014


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blown bulbs. A sensible way forward I hear you

say. It would be if it didn't mean that the LEDsignals were harder to see on approach, if the signal

head is out of alignment, thus resulting in a

potential increase in SPADs. A signal on the

approach to Bounds Green W/B was clobberedseveral times in a couple of months; the signal was

realigned and wasn't hit for 18 months, bingo! The

Rep's took their concerns to Phil Hufton and as aresult a new type LED bulb, with a wider spread of

light, has been designed and will soon be fitted

throughout the tunnel section on the Picc. The IRRep's are going to pursue the SPAD's on personal

file issue and we should push for all SPADs to be

removed from drivers records since the fitting of the

old type LED bulbs !The Piccadilly Line OPOmonitors suffer from sunlight issues at certain

locations which result in problems viewing the PTI.

The Rep's are pursuing better equipment at known

trouble spots to engineer out the problem. In themeantime, if you're in any doubt of the view of the

PTI, request assisted despatch at Cat A platforms. If

anything happens you could well find yourself on amanslaughter charge! A number of suggestions to

improve our cabs have been submitted. Our ageing

fleet is with us for a number of years and certain

things are falling into decline. Advice is to keepbooking up faults as the depots will tell us nothings

wrong if defect log books are empty. Still pursuing

the solution of disarming the console buttons when

the CSDE over ride is operated. A figure of 25k hasbeen mentioned, all we need now is for Picc

management to place the order. No engineeringmitigation as yet to prevent doors opening between

stations, so if you lose your pilot light, fear the

worst!

Meetings have taken place regarding the proposed

new CFDT. We are dead against any walking across

the track to gain access to the depot and are seekingsafer alternative walkways. Why do we need a new

depot anyway? Thought LUL were trying to saveMoney??

Dave

Mark Walters Seven Sisters Local Rep

I t would appear that Victoria L ine Managers are

up to there old tr icks " if everything fail s blame the

Driver" .

When a train arrived a couple of minutes late and

was routed off book into Brixton platform 2 insteadof platform 1, the Driver not seeing a Manager

assumed that their next train would be departing

from the same platform. Upon leaving the step back

room he noticed the train in platform 2 was alreadyopened up but the train in platform 1 was not

Believing there may have been a reformation on his

second train as so often happens and afterinterrogating his duty book, he made his way to the

north end office along his 'booked' departure

platform, which was platform 1.

Upon arriving there he was informed by the DTSM

that the train in platform 2 was indeed his train, but

he had put another driver on it due to not being able

to find the correct Driver. After the Driver hadexplained how this situation had arisen from his

point of view i.e. no information, a train opened upalready and arriving off book in the first place, hewas asked to take the train in platform 1 with no

further issues, or so it would seem!

The day after, he was interviewed by a DRM who

told him that in his opinion the delay was caused bythe Driver and would be logged as an error against

him for not being in the 'correct position' on time.

The DRM also stated that the Driver was also atfault for not contacting the signaler when he first

arrived and for being on the 'wrong' (booked)departure platform.

The Driver of course strongly feels that the cause of

the delay was not solely down to him and offered

plenty of mitigating circumstances, which wereignored. This incident has indeed raised many

issues about how step backs are being managed at

both Brixton and Walthamstow as a consequence


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the following points are being taken up with the

Line Management. Because trains are frequentlyreformed and given to others, was the Driver wrong

to go to his booked departure platform? If the

Drivers train was actually in platform 1, but he/she

was standing on 2 and it departed late as aconsequence would management not argue that they

were not in position? There is no directive which

states that a Driver should pick up from the sameplatform if arrived off book without being notified

to do so first by a Manager? There is also no

directive which states that a Driver should informthe signaler that he/she as arrived off book?

Surely the correct platform position for departure is

that which is stated in the duty book as it is

reflecting the working timetable. And should aDriver work outside the timetable he/she should be

advised to do so first? Are signalers notifying step

back managers that trains will be arriving off book

at any given time, and are step back managersnotifying Drivers upon arrival.

All of these questions will be answered.

Tel: 07930320454

Email:[email protected]

RMT Preparing Ballot Of Locked OutCleaners

Our members working for ISS on the London

Underground Contract have been in dispute with

their employer for many months over the use of a

Biometric Fingerprinting to book on for duty. We

had been in talks with the company but now this

process has been imposed by the company on our

members. As a result of this imposition, our

members have been reminded of the unions

instruction that they should refuse to use the

Biometric technology and should continue to use

the agreed manner to book on.The GGC has noted

a resolution from our Finsbury Park Branch that a

number of our members have now been locked out

of their workplace for refusing to use the Biometric

Booking on System. In many cases those being

locked out have been RMT representatives. In

support of these members, the Council o

Executives agreed to make a one of payment of

50 to those who had been locked out as of 8th

July 2014 and will be keeping the situation under

review. Furthermore, the GGC has noted that talks

are taking place under the auspices of ACAS. In

the meantime, in support of our locked ou

members, we are preparing a ballot matrix o

affected members

How does this meet any dignity at work rule

scrambling across obstacles to book on?
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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RMT takes fight against global union-

busters Sodexo to their London HQCampaigners and trade unionist fighting the

victimisation and dismissal of RMT union

activist Petrit Mihaj have been taking the battle

against global union-busters Sodexo to the

front door of the companys London

headquarters

Petrit has been a major force in building union

organisation on the LUL Sodexo depot catering

contract and has been instrumental in securing

union recognition and delivering improvements

in pay and conditions and effective

representation of staff. An Employment

Tribunal has already ruled that Petrits

dismissal was 100% unfair and that he was

sacked for his trade union activities but under

the UKs notorious anti-union laws the

company are under no obligation to reinstate

him to his original job.

RMT has had no option but to begin a

campaign of industrial action and public

protests to secure workplace justice and a

return to work for Petrit Mihaj.

Sodexo itself, one of the Governments

favourite private contractors, has a long

worldwide form sheet when it comes to union

bashing and treating its workforce like dirt.

With a lucrative portfolio of contracts in prisons

the NHS, schools, defence and other parts of

the public sector, Sodexo was recently

exposed in the national press for a catalogue

of claims of bullying, racism and harassment

This includes a report that an employee was hit

by a director who said it was punch a black

week. Other reports say that the personne

section in Sodexos defence division has been

ethnically cleansed of non-white staff.

The culture of bullying and racism isntrestricted to Sodexos UK operations. In 2005

the company was forced to pay 47.2 million to

settle a lawsuit brought by thousands of black

employees in America who had been routinely

barred from promotion and segregated by the

company.

RMT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said

It is shameful that a company like Sodexowith its shocking track record of racism

bullying and union-busting, are allowed to win

Government and London Underground

contracts. That is the message that we wil

taking to the front door of Sodexos London

headquarters on Monday morning along with

the call for the reinstatement of our colleague

Petrit Mihaj.

Petrit has stood up for the union and for his

colleagues and it is only right that the entire

RMT organisation, and the rest of the wider

labour and trade union movement, stands

shoulder to shoulder with him now that he is

being attacked and victimised. Petrits fight is

part of the global battle against these bullying


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union-busting facilities companies who are

hoovering up multi-million pound public

contracts while treating their staff like dirt. They

should be banned from public works, as the

law allows.

This is the most blatant and clear-cut example

of victimisation and dismissal on the grounds of

union activity that it is possible to imagine a

fact backed up by the Employment Tribunal. It

is due to the anti-union and anti-worker laws in

this country that we have to continue to

campaign for the reinstatement of Petrit Mihaj

and in defence of strong, fighting union

organisation at Sodexo and other facilities

companys out of the same mould please

support the future protests outside thisshameful employer.

Our Regional Organiser has reported that

management are not conducting meaningful

negotiations over this plans and are in fact moving

to implement them without agreement. We are

acting in conjunction with our sister union TSSA

and have outlined our demands which are as

follows:

A clear unconditional commitment that no

member of staff will suffer a loss of

substantive pay

To state how many jobs they propose to cut,

if it has been changed from 953 after the

station by station review.

To state what contingency plans have been

put in place should they continue to close

ticket offices.

Assurances for the withdrawal of thei

notices summoning staff to the

Development Centres.

Meaningful negotiations

A mass meeting of all London Underground

members has been arranged to discuss the

current situation in our campaign against LULs

plans to cut jobs and close ticket offices. The

meeting has been called to gauge the view o

members which will be fed back to the unions

executive when it considers our next course of

action.

The meeting will take place on Friday 22nd

August 2014 at the Indian YMCA near Warren

Street Station from 2pm.

Indian YMCA

41 Fitzroy Square

London W1T 6AQ

HAVE YOU VOTED IN

THE GS ELECTION

YET?CLOSING DATE 22ND

SEPTEMEBER.

Get your vote in the

post today!


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A Message from our Chair

We are half way through the year, and under ourStanding Orders, many of our Reps have so far

fallen very short of our target of 25%

attendance. As your branch Chair I am cannot andwill not sit back while some are claiming to step up,

are apparantly "sleeping" on the job.

As a result I've asked the Secretary to compile a listof the attendance of Reps and Officers before thenext branch meeting for me in September. It will

not quite be a "name & shame" but as we approach

the next round of strike action we need all soldiers

standing on the front line. We also need you, as therank and file members to be asking your Reps each

month "What did you do at the branch last month

Comrade?" Accountability is a two way street; youcheck them locally. As Officers we check them at

the branch.

Attendance at branch meetings have remainedhealthy, we have not lost a branch meting so far this

year other than those we've moved due to

strikes. We now have a full level of Officers and

Chair but still outstanding a Treasurer. We are shortof a number of Rep's within the Cleaners Grade,

especially on the Piccadilly Line and Brixton. Most

of our Reps seem to be short on "hands on" trainingon discipline hearing thereby ending up leaving

cases to the level II Reps. On the rest of the

combine all Reps are being called together onFriday the 22nd to address the latest developments

regarding Every Jobs Matter (EJM) and to see

where we are going with the dispute. In my other

role as Vic President of the Regional Council, withthe help of another one of our Branch member Dave

Rayfield, in his role as LTRC Membership

Secretary, we have kicked off the Combine wideRecruitment and Retentions starting with of course

part of our branch, and have so far done the Centra

and Bakerloo lines. Next month we are hoping tovisit the Docklands. These Regional R&R will all

be coordinated by Dave Rayfield.

The Branches are great place for training on public

speaking and information about what's happeningon other parts of the branch area and is open to all

RMT members. Every second Thursday we have an

opening for guest speakers. If you have a subject

you want to inform our members about, give me acall in advance of the 2nd meeting each month.

Glenroy Watson hair Finsbury Park

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Finsbury Park News - August 14