Health and safety

Campaigning for higher health and safety standards at work, and opposing the employers' shortcuts

Staff Assisting Members Of The Public With Luggage

From RMT & TSSA representatives on the Stations And Revenue Control Safety Council

Following on from an incident, can we remind staff that they should take extra care if they help members of the public with their luggage.

It is not in your job description. We are not porters. We don't have handling training, and most importantly, if you get injured, it will NOT go down as an accident on duty and you could receive a warning (as what happened in the quoted incident).

Stations and Revenue Control Safety Council Staff Side Update June 2012

From RMT & TSSA representatives on the Stations And Revenue Control Safety Council

Multi OLBI’S Sites (station back up power)

Rule book 12, emergency response to power failure - “Where a station has more than one OLBI, it might not be needed to shut the whole station to customers. If any part of the station which is not covered by the defective OLBI can be closed to customers, then the rest of the station may be able to remain open”.

London Bus Strike, Friday 22nd June

From RMT & TSSA representatives on the Stations And Revenue Control Safety Council

Many of you will be aware that all bus companies serving London may be on strike this coming Friday (at the time of writing this a deal may be be on offer).

We met with management today to raise concerns about overcrowding on stations and the knock on effect. Management have stated that they feel the existing arrangements in place for crowd control are acceptable.

RMT Early Day Motions On Taxi Issues

RMT’s Parliamentary group has submitted Early Day Motions on three issues that are very important to our taxi driver members.

Please take a couple of minutes to contact your MP to urge him/her to sign these motions. This will help our campaigns to defend our taxi driver members’ livelihoods (as well as helping the environment, congestion reduction and public safety!).

EDM59 – London Taxis and the Olympic Route Network

That this House notes the inevitable pressures on London's transport network throughout the Olympic Games; further notes that the Olympic Route Network is an important component of transport plans for the Olympics;

RMT Reiterates Concerns As LU Plan To Use Minimally Trained Staff To keep Stations Open During The Olympics

We instruct the General Secretary to make preparation for a ballot for industrial action short of strikes

We note that London Underground intends to count ‘Incident Customer Service Assistants’ towards minimum numbers for station staffing, despite the fact that these are not station staff and have minimal training. This union reaffirms our opposition to this, and notes that we are already in dispute with LUL about this matter, which has been referred to ACAS.

London Underground Correspondence On Victoria Line Safety & Training To Be Discussed

We note the correspondence from London Underground. We instruct the General Secretary to forward this letter to our functional council representatives of train, depot and service control staff, asking for their comments and any additional information they may have about this issue, and to place replies in front of us.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

RMT To Pursue Joint Union Approach On LU Rainbow Attendance policy

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd.

We instruct the General Secretary to obtain a report on the progress of this issue at LU Company Council, and to pursue the other unions for a response to our request for a joint approach.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

London Underground Facing Prosecution Over Runaway Northern Line Train

London Underground and Tube Lines are to be prosecuted by the Office Of Rail Regulation following a runaway engineering train on the northern line.

Back in August 2010, the defective engineering train ran backwards through six stations after it separated from the train which was towing it off of the line.

A collision with a passenger train was averted thanks to the quick actions of control room staff and train operators on the day.

Ban On Pedicabs During The Olympics

We note the correspondence from our London Taxi branch, outlining their objections to pedicabs, which include: lack of proper CRB or police checks; unsafe design; congestion; and lack of fare structure leading to passengers being ripped off.

We therefore accept our branch’s view that this union should campaign for a ban on pedicabs during the period of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, and accordingly instruct the General Secretary to ask our Parliamentary group to submit an Early Day Motion, and to raise this issue with Greater London Assembly members.

Nowhere Over The Rainbow

RMT is fighting against London underground's 'rainbow' procedure for sickness.

It seems an odd choice of name. Rainbows are caused when the sun shines through the rain. If you have a few rainy days, there may well be no sunshine from the bosses at LU - just the sack.

There are many scenarios where you could fall foul of the new procedure and potentially lose your job.

Here are a few:

  • You had a few odd days off sick and then needed to care for a sick family member.