As more than 300 Virgin XC guards prepare to strike for the eighth consecutive Sunday, RMT has complained to the Railways Inspectorate that the company is using inadequately trained and medically restricted managers to cover safety critical duties on strike days.

In the House of Commons, a motion (EDM 1574, see notes below) tabled by Jeremy Corbyn and signed to date by two dozen MPs expresses concern that Virgin XC may be compromising the safety of passengers,and calls on Virgin boss Richard Branson to get his company back round the talks table.

"We have supplied a dossier of cases to the Railways Inspectorate showing how Virgin XC are using inadequately trained and even medically restricted managers to run trains on strike days," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"They are putting people in charge of trains who have not been near one for years and others who have no operational background at all except a training course only one third as long as the usual 12-week guards' course.

"They are even pushing people back into front-line work who are normally kept away from operational duties for medical or safety reasons.

"We hope the HSE will not just accept Virgin XC's word that they are using competent people, but investigate exactly how the company can expect managers to be competent after a course that lasts a fraction of the usual 12 weeks.

"We believed this dispute was settled many months ago until the Virgin board intervened, but we have made it clear that we are ready to talk to the company just as soon as they are with no pre-conditions at the conciliation service Acas," Bob Crow said

Points referred to the Health and Safety Executive's Railways Inspectorate include:

* Managers put through a condensed four-week training course in place of the usual 12-week guards' course deemed 'competent' by Virgin XC

* A manager working on a strike day unable to identify a distress call from the galley and had to be told how to reset the alarm, despite having undergone the shortened training course.

* A manager, removed from operational duties because of mental-health problems and who several times had his own requests to be returned to front-line duties turned down, put in charge of trains on strike days.

* A manager, temporarily removed from operational duties because she was heavily pregnant, as is usual, put back on trains on strike days.

ends

For further information contact Derek Kotz on 020 7387 4771 or 07939 595 092,
or Ken Usher on 07976 244 683

Notes to editors:
More than 300 RMT members, who voted by a margin of more than two to one to strike, have refused to work on Sundays since January 1 after the company turned its back on an offer by the union to talk about the erosion of Sunday pay premiums.

Early Day Motion 1574 - tabled by Jeremy Corbyn MP and signed by 23 others:

"That this House is deeply concerned at the ongoing dispute between Virgin Cross Country and the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT); is further concerned at reports that Virgin may be compromising the safety of passengers by the use of untrained and medically restricted personnel on strike days; regrets that Virgin has refused to return to the negotiating table; and therefore calls on Richard Branson to urge his company immediately to re-open negotiations with the RMT."