Rosters

Network Rail’s interpretation of our agreed National Rostering Principles appears to be that if agreement on rosters cannot be reached locally then they have the right to impose them. One clear example is the situation in South Wales, where RMT members are in the middle of a long-running dispute against the imposition of rosters at the new Control Centre. Rosters have also been imposed on our members in New Cross.

The company is quite candid that flexibility and cost are two of the main criteria behind their attempts to manipulate rostering. Neither of these terms are specified in any part of the national agreement. If the company gets away with this be in no doubt that they will take it as carte blanche to continue to spread it to other areas across the country. RMT has sought an unconditional assurance that in the event of disagreement between the staff representatives and management, the status quo will prevail and that new rosters will not be imposed. We are yet to receive that assurance.

PTR&R

The Promotion, Transfer, Redundancy and Resettlement Agreement (PTR&R) is one of the most important agreements ever negotiated by this union. It is there to protect members who, through no fault of their own, are unfortunate enough to find themselves without a job and gives clear rules to follow during displacement and redundancy situations. Network Rail wrongly assert that Signaler’s conditions were changed in 1994 by the introduction of the restructuring agreement. This is simply not the case. They have made no secret that they would love to see it disappear as it frustrates their ability to do what they like regardless of long established procedures which have worked effectively for decades.

The main criteria for redundancy selection and slotting into vacancies has always been seniority, and the union has also sought an unconditional assurance that this will continue to be the case. It is vital for the future security of members that the agreement is protected and remains in place especially with all the new signaling schemes on the horizon.

Over the past few years Network Rail has essentially torn up the part of the agreement that allows displaced staff, if no other positions are available, to apply for positions more than one grade below their substantive grade whilst retaining their rate of pay. The union even has examples of management blatantly manipulating the agreement in attempts to avoid paying travel expenses to staff that have been displaced.

Furthermore it has been a long standing position that Area Councils must be the custodians of the PTR&R Agreement and that all changes would be discussed first at area level. Network Rail wish to keep area councils out of the PTR&R process and this can only be regarded as an attempt to bulldoze through proposals at local level.

RMT has requested an unconditional assurance that consultation on all closures and re-signalling schemes will take place at area level. Yet again we are yet to receive that assurance.

T3 Possessions

The company is trying to make 1,500 rail maintenance workers redundant. It is our firm belief that this is an unnecessary and potentially dangerous move and your RMT Maintenance colleagues are already in dispute with the company.

As part of its cost-cutting plan, Network Rail has proposed making changes to the way in which T3 possessions are carried out. They want to do away with the tried-and-tested safety measure of placing detonators at either end of a possession to protect the track workers in it. This isn’t about increasing safety, its nothing more than a way of saving time and money on setting up possessions. Inevitably, such a proposal would lead to the onus for the safety of such possessions being transferred to signalers- and it would mean that if anything went wrong, it would be the signaler who would end up in Court on a Manslaughter charge. The union has told the company their proposals would be potentially unsafe and totally unacceptable and RMT’s opposition to this plan has forced NR to withdraw the proposal for the moment. However they have failed to give an unequivocal guarantee that it will not rear its head again.

In the absence of the guarantees we have sought I urge members to return the biggest possible YES vote for industrial action. A strong ’Yes’ vote will give us the strong mandate needed to defend your safety and working conditions.

Ballot papers will be sent to members on Thursday 4th March, and completed papers must be returned by Friday 19th March 2010.

PROTECT YOUR AGREEMENTS, DEFEND YOUR SAFETY

VOTE ‘YES’ FOR INDUSTRIAL ACTION

Yours Sincerely

Bob Crow
General Secretary

If you haven’t received a ballot paper by Thursday 11th March contact RMT’s Freephone Helpline on 0800 376 3706 and one will be urgently sent to you.