LUL Trains

Arnos Grove driver, Zak Khan, harshly sacked last month after having a SPAD last October, has had his appeal decision deferred, not once, but twice. At his appeal hearing on 3rd February, Zak’s rep, Dean O’Hanlon, pointed out the many points which the original disciplinary panel skipped over, along with new evidence, and made a strong case for Zak’s reinstatement. Appeal Chairman, Nick Shaw, listened to the points made, before announcing that he was not going to make his decision immediately; the appeal would now be reconvened at 1530 on Friday 6th February.

Two recent ‘wrong-side door openings’ by drivers on the Victoria line have highlighted a potentially lethal anomaly concerning that line. Trains on all lines have a ‘correct side door enable’ (CSDE) system built in, a system which prevents drivers from accidentally opening train doors on the wrong side. All lines, that is, except the Vic! Yes, believe it or not, the Victoria line does NOT have CSDE, despite the potentially lethal consequences of a wrong-side door opening event. So how did this come to be?

X marks the spot!

It was with shock and anger that we heard the news that Arnos Grove train operator, Zak Khan, had been summarily dismissed (sacked with no notice) at a Company Disciplinary Interview (CDI) on 16th January. Zak had been referred to the CDI for an aggravated SPAD which took place on 24th October last year. Arnos Grove News has seen the case against Zak and believes that his summary dismissal is grossly unfair.

Arnos Grove train operator, Zak Khan, was summarily dismissed at a Company Disciplinary Interview held on 16th January. His sacking was grossly unjust; it is also the latest attempt by an increasingly militant management to create a climate of fear in our workplace. We need to put a stop to this - it's time for action.

Read about how the company stitched up Zak and about the fight for justice - and Zak's reinstatement - in the attached newsletter.

Recently Upminster train operators had a collection to pay for a rememberance garden in memory of past drivers from the depot. This is situated at the rear of the new building set amongst the flower beds and cleverly landscaped area. Old disused sleepers have brass plaques displaying names of various past well thought of drivers, that are sadly not with us anymore.

RMT press release, issued today

LONDON UNDERGROUND’S biggest union has urged the company to withdraw an “astonishing and potentially highly dangerous” instruction which will require drivers to ask passengers to push carriage doors closed in tunnels.

RMT is seeking urgent discussions with LUL over an ‘Operation Standards Notice’ which will also require drivers to move trains through tunnels even if they are not certain that carriage doors are closed.

Merry Christmas from Morden Management

A Morden train operator has had his pay stopped because he has had an eye operation for a detached retina. If this condition had not been treated he would have lost the eyesight in his right eye.

Management tried to force Bob to come back to work on alternative duties. Bob declined this offer, the operation was successful and he was recovering at the expected timescale.

by Vaughan Thomas, RMT Trains Council

National and local media often accuse Tube drivers of being overpaid and under worked. Whenever we have a dispute they trot out the old refrain that a trained monkey could do our job, and it’s about time that the Mayor took on the unions! Flogging’s too good for the likes of us!

They compare us to underpaid workers in the emergency services: the nurses, paramedics and firefighters and say we should be grateful for what we’ve got. How dare we ask for more!

by Bill O’Dowd, Trains Council

LUL management can’t get a new Attendance At Work policy, so say they will ‘enforce the existing one’. This means there will be no more ‘not normally counted items’ such as medical treatments at hospital, unless it is an emergency admittance!