Circular No. IR/242/09

RATES OF PAY AND CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2009, REDUNDANCIES AND BREACH OF AGREEMENTS – LUL

As you would have been made aware by email, text and press announcements, considerable progress has been made towards resolving the current dispute situation on LUL. I am pleased to report that there has been movement in respect of jobs, pay and other matters and the purpose of this circular is to give further details.

Jobs

I would say from the outset that there is now a clear undertaking by management to abide by the Annexe H, Jobs for Life Agreement that was fought for by the Union with the advent of PPP. There will not now be any compulsory redundancies.

This is a far cry from where we started where estimates of jobs at risk ran into the thousands. I can now confirm that the remaining jobs deemed to be at risk now number only 24 and even these staff concerned will be protected by collective agreements. Of the 24, seven are Administrative positions with the remaining 17 being managerial positions.

I have written to LUL concerning the remaining staff involved in this process for whom RMT has recognition rights asking them to inform me when the process of accommodating these members is completed.

The principle has been established that any member of staff at risk because of the Operating Cost Review will be offered the option of a CSA role at least.

Pay

This is not settled at this time but there will be further discussions under the auspices of ACAS.

All four unions will be involved in this process and at the time of writing this circular ACAS had already been contacted by LUL and things were being set up to hold the talks as soon as possible.

Job Offers for Medically Restricted Staff

Management have proposed setting up a Joint Working Party to discuss the effectiveness of their current medical redeployment arrangements and RMT intends to be fully involved with this. This will initially be discussed as part of the forthcoming ACAS talks.

Attendance at Work and Grievance Procedures

Discussions on these have been and will continue to be ongoing via the relevant forums.

I am sure members will primarily be concerned with developments at ACAS and I hope to report on this as soon as possible. Best wishes until then and thanks once again for your firm stand in this dispute.

Yours sincerely

Bob Crow GENERAL SECRETARY