RMT Regional Organiser Steve Hedley has sent the following letter to London Underground's Director of Employee Relations ...

The policy below has appeared on your website, I have to reiterate that it is the RMT’s position that all trade union and health and safety communication is legitimate under the ACAS code of practice therefore we are in dispute over your somewhat draconian interpretation of internet use and will seek both legal and industrial remedies if you choose to attempt to discipline anyone on this issue.

Yours sincerely

Steve Hedley Regional Organiser

Guidelines for Trade Union Representatives When Using Electronic Communications Facilities Provided by London Underground

This Guideline is to ensure that there is clarity concerning how electronic communication facilities can be used. Where we refer to e mail principles should be applied to use of Notice Boards as this is a closely linked issue.

London Underground (LUL) provides its employees, selected to be Trade Union Representatives (Reps), with the necessary facilities to enable them to carry out their union roles. These facilities are for the purpose of: 1. Keeping their union members informed of Branch and Head Office business, such as meetings, elections, member’s welfare and general policy; 2. Enabling their members in LUL to get in touch with them with queries or requests for assistance; 3. Facilitating communication between the Union Reps and Management, e.g., providing Functional Council Reps with Mobile phones; LUL’s Policies and Guidelines set the framework within which these facilities may be used and the Reps are required to comply with them like every other employee. Broadly, this means that these facilities may not be used in a manner likely to be to the disadvantage or detriment of the Company. This applies to all employees, including senior managers. Because Reps are in a slightly different position to most employees when using these facilities (for instance, they may be challenging LUL’s line on an issue), the following Q&A explains the terms of use of these facilities when provided to Reps.

Question 1: What can e mail be used for by Reps? Answer: It can be used to support representatives to carry out legitimate Trade Union duties. This includes their role in representing their members (Grievances, Disciplines etc), or in any collective consultation process, where they are providing their members with information, updates or obtaining feedback from them. This may well involve communicating back views to management that LUL might not agree with, however that is part of any healthy working relationship and quite acceptable. However, LUL’s e mail may obviously not be used to undermine or denigrate the Company or its officials. Sometimes the Unions adopt very public stances that oppose certain LUL initiatives. Whilst that is of course every Union’s prerogative, like any other organisation, LUL would not permit it own facilities to be used against it. This means that e mail (or any other facilities) may not be used in any capacity to support any form of industrial action in LUL or any company associated with it. Likewise, our facilities may not be used to promote any political views.

Question 2: Can Reps e mail non-members of staff? Answer: This is a tricky area as many of our staff are members of the 4 recognised Unions. Inevitably each Union will be sensitive to any of the other 3 Unions e mailing staff who may be their members without prior agreement. LUL therefore expects each Union to communicate only with its own members, and not with categories of staff as a whole, unless with prior LUL agreement. This does not include Reps on a functional council e mailing each other, for instance, and keeping in touch over common council business etc.

Question 3: Can e mail be used to disagree with LUL Answer: Yes, the nature of our relationship means that this will happen. There is of course a distinction between disagreeing with a proposed course of action or decision on the one hand, and, on the other, allowing that criticism to become personal and/or making remarks that are aimed to undermine or insult any individual or the Company overall. That could be an inappropriate use of a facility, whether used by a Rep or a member of staff or a manager.

Question 4: Use of facilities to promote Industrial Action Answer: None of our facilities (notice boards, (mobile) phones, e mail etc) may be used to encourage members to support a ballot or to take industrial action under any circumstances. LUL takes very seriously any such activity. This does not prevent the Union from using its own facilities and websites to express itself as it wishes, however, as these are LU’s facilities, the company requires all those who use them to do so it accordance with its guidelines.

Question 5: Can LUL phone numbers and LUL e mail addresses be publicised on TU websites Answer: No

Question 6: Can facilities be used to support membership drives? Answer: No. In a multi union environment, LUL wishes to avoid its systems being used in any competition for members amongst its staff. This is the specific business of each Union, which must use its own time, materials and facilities for this purpose.

Question 7: How can representatives legitimately raise concerns with managers without being accused of misusing E mail? Answer: Firstly, its completely legitimate for Reps to raise concerns relating to the business for which they have been appointed with the relevant managers. However, on all sides, there is a simple etiquette that should be followed. E mails should be respectful and courteous and not be written or circulated with any intention to discredit or embarrass the recipient, whether a manager or a Rep. Senders should therefore be sensitive to any practice of copying in a large community of people and then seeking to engage in a lengthy e mail chain debate. Aside from rarely resolving an issue, sometimes this can be perceived as seeking to undermine or discredit people.

Question 8: What constitutes acceptable use of the Out-of-Office facility? Answer: It should only be used to advise of any dates of absence and alternative contacts during that time. It should not relay personal messages or make derogatory statements and opinions about any aspect of LUL. Likewise signatures at the end of e mails should not impart any other information other than title and normal contact details. Non LUL website links may not be included

Question 9: Can a Rep use the e mail to advise members of a dispute and the details? Answer: Yes, a Rep may put his or her Union’s position to the members. If the rep wishes to use LU’s facilities to do so (and this is not necessarily as simple as it sounds), then this use is subject to the following: · It should be a factual report and not resort to derogatory or inflammatory opinions or statements about LU or any of its officials or aim to heighten tensions; · It must abide by the LU Guidelines concerning the use of e mail, as well as the code of conduct. · The material may not explicitly encourage support for industrial action. A rational summary of your Union’s concerns will clearly indicate the line your union is recommending. However LUL is not able to permit any open call for support for industrial action to be made via its systems when, if successful, such industrial action would be to the disadvantage of the company and its customers. All reps are asked to appreciate why LUL has to take this position and abide by this requirement.

Question 10: Can e mail be used as a medium through which to conduct consultation? Answer: Yes. The provision of information can be done in a variety of ways. What is important is that it is received by the parties involved in the exercise, and that is its content is sufficient to allow them to understand what is being proposed, and to respond in an informed way. This means that if e mail facilities are provided, it is perfectly acceptable to use e mail as a medium through which to send material / information or proposals. It is also acceptable to ask for comments on a proposal to be submitted by e mail. This could be the case, where perhaps a matter is urgent and there is not time for a formal meeting, or where, following formal meeting/s and face to face exchanges, Management then requests written feedback or comments. Alternatively, it may be that the matters do not require the formal convening of a meeting - there are a number of scenarios. Again, the key point is ensuring that there is fair time for the parties to reply, and that the deadline for returning comments is known to all.