Disabled people and members

EQUALITY DATES 2012

RMT Council of Executives decision:

That we note the meeting took place and realise that we need to build interest to ensure more delegates. We instruct the General Secretary to organise a further meeting in May 2012 following an article in RMT News advertising the event.

Report to RMT's Council of Executives of RMT's initial Disabled Members' Conference: A Conference took place on 8th November in accordance with your instruction. Whilst the number of delegates attending was far from high, a very positive discussion on the way forward took place. There was agreement that disabled members needed a voice in the Union and that a Rule change should be brought forward.

RMT has revealed a shocking instruction from London Underground management - that visually-impaired passengers should not travel to Victoria station during the evening peak. The BBC has covered this story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15303638

The union said last year that savage cuts to station staffing would leave disabled people without the help they need in getting around the Tube system. This appalling report shows that we were right. London Underground should reverse the job cuts!

The following resolution submitted by TFL No1 Branch was carried unanimously at the October 27th meeting of the Regional Council.

No to hate crime campaign 17-24-30.org are a non-profit making organisation that have been running vigils in Trafalgar square in October for the last two years. They are currently going through the process to achieve charitable trust status.

This region notes the importance of a collective stand against all forms of hate crime and the hard work done by 17-24-30.org to date.

This region resolves publicise the 17-24-30.org and the affiliation form.

from General Secretary Bob Crow

In my Circular No. NP/062/11, 4th April 2011, I sought to establish the views of Branches as to whether an advisory committee and/or conference be established for our member with disabilities. The five responses received were placed before the Council of Executives who noted and adopted the following recommendation:-

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the report on the equality strand of the review of London Underground’s OSP (job cuts). We endorse the detailed critique of the job cuts’ impact on equalities, which can be found on file. This critique highlights that London Underground:

• calculates station staffing levels without considering the needs of equality groups
• uses methods for collecting information, categorising passenger journeys and assessing data which are deeply flawed and fail to account for equality issues
  

Report to RMT stations representatives from Janine Booth

Summary:

• London Underground does not consider the needs of equalities groups when calculating its station staffing levels.
• LU's methods for collecting information, categorising passenger journeys and assessing data are deeply flawed and fail to account for equality issues.
• LU did not carry out an adequate Equality Impact Assessment before going ahead with the OSP, despite being obliged by law to do so. The revisions it has made to the EqIA since then are minor and wholly inadequate.
  

The following resolution submitted by East Ham branch was carried at the Regional Council meeting on May 26th.

This Regional Council already has policy that RMT should name a figure that the union aspires to achieve for this year’s pay award. We now resolve that this figure should be 6.5% (ie. February RPI+1%) or £2,500 whichever is higher. We feel that this would give greater benefit to the low paid grades whilst still being reasonable for the higher paid Grades.

As a public body, London Underground has to carry out an assessment of the impact of any new policy on various equality issues. The attached file is LU's Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for its current OSP (policy of cutting 800 mainly-stations jobs). Below is the response to this document that I have written on behalf of RMT. You will see from this that LU's EQIA falls woefully short, and ignores key equality issues.