RMT Executive decisions

We welcome the response from ASLEF, expressing its willingness to attend a meeting to discuss a joint campaign against driverless trains. We instruct the General Secretary to ensure that this meeting takes place as soon as practical, and to place a report in front of us.

London Transport Regional Council, branches and London Undergroundrepresentatives to be advised.

We note the correspondence from Tube Lines Ltd, which clarifies that its contract with ISS requires an ‘improved method of accurate recording’, but does not specify that it must be this biometric method. We therefore instruct the General Secretary to advise ISS that we reject its claim that it is contractually required to introduce this system, and demand that it negotiate with us on using a system that does not compromise our members’ dignity and civil rights.

Further, we instruct the General Secretary to:
1. Organise a protest against ISS’s planned imposition of biometric booking on

We note the report from our Regional Organiser and share his alarm at the increase in the number of projected redundancies and the spread of possible redundancies to clerical grades.

We note that our Regional Organiser has requested feedback from our branch and representatives and instruct the General Secretary to place this in front of us when received.

We also instruct the General Secretary to ensure that our TfL membership details are kept as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd dated 29 October 2013.

We note that this letter does not give the assurance we requested that when LUL orders or commissions new train stock, these will include a driver’s cab, and instead states that the company ‘cannot rule anything in or out’.

We further note that the letter:

• refers to ‘pressure to be more efficient’ and to ‘get the best value for money from everything we get’, indicating that LUL’s decisions on this matter will be driven by a desire to cut spending and save money;

We note that this morning, LUL announced:

• that every ticket office will close by 2015
• that nearly one thousand jobs on stations will go, with a net loss of 750 jobs
• that stations will be staffed when trains are running, which suggests that they may not have Supervisors present and may no longer be staffed when trains are not running at night
• a thoroughgoing restructuring of station staffing, with all job roles changing and staff being re-evaluated for their own jobs

• Re-grading of waterloo & city line service control staff – london underground.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd dated 15 November 2013. We instruct the General Secretary to reply, pointing out that our ballot is for action short of strike action, not for strike action as stated in the letter, and that our lead officer will attend the suggested meeting at a mutually-convenient time.

A report of this meeting is to be placed in front of us. London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

We note the correspondence from Transport for London dated 12 September 2013, and instruct the General Secretary to forward this to our TfL reps and our TfL no.1 branch and to post it on our website alongside this decision and our ‘What is Market Testing?’ briefing.

We reaffirm that RMT opposes market testing, a process which is used as a pretext either to privatise services or to make cuts to in-house services. In line with this, we note that TfL’s letter sets out that it is making plans to:

• either reorganise or outsource Recruitment
• reorganise Learning and Development
  

We note the continuing widespread use of agency labour by London Underground Ltd (and other parts of Transport for London): as of 2 April this year, there were 829 'non-permanent' staff on London Underground Ltd. LUL’s continuing use and abuse of agency staff is seriously detrimental to LUL employees, as it undermines their opportunities to obtain and retain work and creates disruption in the workplace Ltd. We reaffirm our demand that LUL stops using agencies and offers their workers permanent employment - including those of the 33 former Trainpeople employees that it has not yet employed.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd, advising that it plans to recruit Train Operators from "the open market" and the Military Redeployment Agency.

We reject LUL's assertion that "the agreed internal processes have been exhausted without success". We believe that the implication that internal applicants, primarily Customer Service Assistants, are not good enough to become drivers is inaccurate and insulting. There are very few promotional opportunities for CSAs; this move further reduces those opportunities.

These are notes from Council of Executive Member Janine Booth's report to the London Transport Regional Council meeting. The meeting is held on the last Thursday of each month, and members are welcome and encouraged to attend.

Report

EQUALITIES

Women
- ‘Bargaining for gender equality’ European event
- UN/ITF Day of Action, 25 November
- 7 November = ‘Equal Pay Day’
- Malala Youssafzai

LGBT
- new TUC guide available on LGBT rights at work
- international LGBT rights

BEM
- internal structures review

Disability