Health and safety

Despite agreements reached with London Underground and your union just over a year ago at Directors level regarding the implementation of Auto Not Permitted (ANP) while P-Way staff or trespassers were on the track, LU have decided to remove this facility without meaningful consultation with your union and without the participation of local safety representatives in the workplace risk assessments around this.

An email has been sent out to via internal email to London Underground station staff regarding workplace violence and staff assaults.

We hope that the results of this survey may lead to creating a better environment for you to work in and helping to eradicate the risk of violence towards staff working on stations.

Please be as honest with your answers as possible. Although the survey asks for your grade it is completely anonymous and will not be used to identify staff in any way.

Further to my Circular NP/300/13 of 31st October 2013 the FBU have announced that a further dispute between them and the Fire Service Employers will take place on Friday 13th December 2013 between 18.00 and 22.00 and on Saturday 14th December 2013 between 18.00 and 22.00. This strike will cover the Greater London area.

Many of you will remain extremely concerned at the health and safety implications for your members, your colleagues and the travelling public should the Fire Brigades Union take strike action. RMT are fully supportive of the FBU stance in this dispute.

Thursday 12 December 2013 will mark 25 years since the Clapham Junction Rail Crash that left 35 people dead and hundreds injured.
The accident happened when the crowded 06:14 train from Poole to London Waterloo crashed into the back of the stationary 07:18 Basingstoke service, which had stopped at a red signal. A third train, travelling empty in the opposite direction, hit the wreckage only minutes later.

The RMT have recieved a new document which reveals more details of London Undergrounds cuts plan. This newly released document, attached below, is a 'Change Assurance Plan' which gives some further insight into what these cuts, if successful, could mean in health & safety terms .

The document is very low on detail of how the proposed changes to station staffing structure will impact on the driver grade. However, section 2.7 claims that there are no changes proposed to train operations.

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;

Every driver on the combine needs to get ready to defend the job. LU's plans to slash staffing on stations will effect every grade in every function and will impact directly on our ability to do our job safely and professionally.

TUBE UNION RMT warned today that they have been notified by London Underground that a major announcement on jobs, services and safety cuts is due to made to senior union representatives at 9am tomorrow – Thursday 21st November.

The announcement was trailed by tube boss Mike Brown at a recent meeting of the London Assembly where he confirmed that ticket offices, station and platform staffing and other safety critical posts would be threatened in response to £225 million annual cuts imposed on TFL in the Government Spending Review.

We note and adopt the report of our Southern Sub-committee.

We welcome the resolution from our Jubilee South branch, and support its proposals. We therefore instruct the General secretary to:

1. Organise a public meeting in defence of London Underground jobs, preferably in conjunction with Action for Rail, and involving disability access to transport pressure groups such as Transport for All, and supportive MPs and GLA members.