TRANSPORT UNION RMT confirmed today that security and safety staff employed by STM Security Group on the London Overground contract will be taking industrial action this week in a dispute over bullying and harassment and an attempt to impose workplace changes without agreement.

In this long-running dispute, RMT officials put forward a possible solution which would help defuse the problems at STM. This involved the creation of a roster which would do away with zero hour contracts and give all Travel Safe Officers guaranteed hours. The union was confident that this would lead to better working conditions and kerb the amount of pressure in the workplace.

At first, STM management were receptive to this idea and a meeting was scheduled to discuss the practicalities of drawing up a new roster. However, without warning STM cancelled the meeting and have since refused to meet with RMT despite continued requests from the union.

As a result of this point blank refusal by the company to discuss the long-standing grievances, RMT’s executive has decided to escalate this dispute in the form of further industrial action. ALL Travel Safe Officer members are instructed to take industrial action short of a strike from 00:01 hours on FRIDAY 17TH MAY 2013 in the form of:

• NOT submitting any incident reports following any incidents until further notice.
• NOT to “tag” whilst visiting stations and trains as part of your duties until further notice.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“Since the middle of April, the union has continuously asked SMT for meetings at both formal and informal level in an attempt reach a settlement. In that time, management’s attitude has become actively hostile and they have effectively stonewalled the union’s negotiating team. RMT feels completely misled, as this is an act of serious bad faith which has undermined the dispute resolution process.

“It is now clear that management have no interest in resolving this matter and are content to bury their heads in the sand, while bullying and harassment remains on the increase. It is that pig-headed and aggressive stance that has led to the escalation of the dispute.”