Discrimination against disabled workers continues, and RMT is organising to oppose it
The TUC Disabled Workers' Committee's accessible transport working group (convened by RMT's janine Booth) met on Monday 6 January, and drafted these plans.
On Monday, members of the TUC Disabled Workers' Committee met informally to discuss fighting back following the election of a majority Conservative government.
The TUC has been consulting on proposal to improve its equality structures. Following consultation, the following proposals will go forward to the TUC Executive:
RMT, Unite, PCS and TSSA were represented at the meeting. ASLEF did not attend.
Accessible Transport
Despite several members being unavoidably absent, the meeting was well-attended and lively. We welcomed our newest Committee member, Tomas Bissett from Liverpool 5 branch.
NATIONAL EXECUTIVE REPORT
RMT representatives: Janine Booth, Jamie Parry
Unite had three representatives at the meeting, PCS one. The other unions - TSSA, ASLEF and Prospect - were not represented.
‘Safety Moment’
We raised the issue of sexual harassment, especially on Night Tube. Management responded that the Mayor’s office (Michele Dix and Amy Lame) had drawn up a charter for women’s safety at night. The unions expressed alarm that we had not been consulted about this. Management agreed to arrange for our involvement.
Subject: DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION – LONDON UNDERGROUND
That we note the resolution from our Bakerloo Line Branch and agree that its not enough for the company to portray themselves as a progressive equal opportunities employer to staff and publicly, if they allow their junior managers to regularly attempt to unpick agreed reasonable working adjustments for our member; which will have a potential impact on all our disabled members of staff.
We instruct the General Secretary to take up the matter in-line with the resolution:
by Janine Booth, RMT nominee on TUC Disabled Workers' Committee
Disabled Workers’ Conference decisions
We considered how to best carry out the decisions of the TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference. We agreed that the most effective way to do this was by establishing working groups on various policy areas. Committee members volunteered to convene groups, and a circular will be sent out asking other Committee members to volunteer to join these groups.