At the 79th National Conference of Signalling and Operations Grades held in Folkestone over the weekend of 25th – 26th March 2012, delegates voted to send their concerns about this procedure to the RMT Annual General Meeting for further pressure to be applied to Network Rail management.

Conference heard from many delegates from all over the country and all were united in their opposition to this awful way of working, indeed most agreed that far from being a safe system of work, it has huge potential to cause dangerous and possibly fatal accidents on the railway.

Delegates reiterated their views that safety is their number one priority and they believe that the complexities of this system could have devastating effects, not just on themselves, but also other railway employees and the travelling public.

Delegates also decided that a resolution supporting a review and possible modernisation of our PTR&R Terms and Conditions should be presented to the RMT AGM for debate. This is because these agreements were last reviewed in 1994 and some date back to before WWII.

All the resolutions from RMT Bristol branch were passed and the conference stated our determination to stand firm in the face of the biggest ever attacks on our grade.

We will never stand in the way of modernisation, but we will insist that national agreements are honoured and indeed improved, whilst displaced and redundant staff are treated fairly and with dignity.