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An apparently serious blunder by a Network Rail manager who worked a signal box during last Saturday’s Lincoln area signallers’ strike could have had catastrophic consequences.
The RMT union has today asked the Railways Inspectorate to investigate an incident at West Holmes box in which track workers and passengers were put at serious risk by an error that could have sent a passenger train on the Newark-Lincoln line through an engineering site at up to 70mph.
A document seen by the union indicates that the time an engineering ‘blockage’ was supposedly given up last Sunday morning (February 24) was entered on a safety-critical authorisation form the night before - more than eleven hours before the time indicated on the form.
The time the blockage is given up is meant to be recorded when it actually takes place, after checking with the person responsible for the safety of the engineering work on the ground, and only then is the line safe to be re-opened to traffic.
If the mistake had not been spotted by the experienced signaller who re-opened the box the following morning, and had the engineering work overrun, the line could have been re-opened to traffic with potentially fatal consequences.
BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union today warned that strike action was inevitable if Network Rail pressed ahead with the imposition of an inferior pension scheme.
Responding to the company’s unilateral announcement that it was to launch a new defined-benefit scheme, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:
“We are not prepared to tolerate a worsening of pensions, not least after all the money that’s been extracted from the industry since privatisation.
“We have called for further industry-wide discussion, but what we have been given is an attempt to impose an inferior pension scheme without any discussion or agreement.
“This isn’t about widening choice, it’s about undermining the existing final-salary scheme and a cynical attempt to undermine the Railway Pensions Commission before anyone has had a chance to discuss its findings.
“I am in no doubt that if the company persists in imposing a worse pension scheme there will be a national rail strike.”
As predicted by this blog on sunday, the FGW strike has been suspended pending further talks with FGW managment.
FGW has agreed not to use managers to drive or work trains as guards.
We are reciving reports that FGW managment have admitted they are wrong and are looking to meaningfull discussions. The Strike should be called off on Tuesday. Stay tuned for updates.
Press Release from RMT
MORE THAN 600 RMT guards and train drivers at First Great Western will strike for 48 hours from a minute after midnight on January 20 after voting overwhelmingly for action in disputes over breakdowns in industrial relations and the use of managers to guard and drive trains.
The RMT executive this afternoon also agreed to ballot the union’s more than 1,500 other members at the company over similar issues.
Bob Crow said “After considering reports from our people on the ground in First Great Western the RMT executive agreed that our guard and driver members will strike on Sunday January 20 and Monday January 21,” general secretary Bob Crow said this afternoon. First Great Western have angered our members across the company with heavy handed and confrontational management and by undermining our members’ jobs.
We have also therefore agreed to put in place a ballot of more than 1,500 RMT members in all other grades across the company and to urge them to vote for action over what has become a comprehensive breakdown in industrial relations.”
In separate ballots that closed today, drivers voted by 62 (81.6%) to 14 (18.4%) to strike, and by 67 (88.2%) to 9 (11.8%) for action short of strike, while guards voted by 229 (71.1%) to 93 (28.9%) to strike, and by 289 (89.5%) to 34 (10.5%) for action short of strike. The union’s executive will meet shortly to consider what action to call.
RAIL WORKERS who take time off work after being assaulted or abused by passengers are having their pay docked by Northern Rail.
Barely a year after RMT told the company it had to make a bigger effort to combat violence against staff, the union has demanded that Northern Rail abandon a unilateral change in policy that has resulted in victims losing money if they need time off.
The problem came to light after a conductor who had been physically assaulted and threatened with a bottle was told that he would receive only his basic pay rather than average wages, because the latest in a string of attacks on him had not been serious enough.
It seems that Northern Rail are only interested in their shareholders and dont care about their own staff.
Bob Crow said “Until last October the company’s policy had been to pay average wages to all staff who needed time off after suffering violence or abuse from passengers, but the company now says it will only give full pay to victims who receive “severe physical injury”.
This is shocking and completely unacceptable, and the union will do whatever is necessary to get this shameful policy change reversed, It is nothing short of despicable when a loyal worker who has suffered a string of assaults is told that the latest attack wasn’t serious enough to warrant paying his full wages while he recovered and is then told that he may lose his job if he is assaulted again.
Only last April the company reassured our reps that staff who needed time off after serious verbal abuse would receive average pay. but they are now saying that staff will receive only their basic pay if an assault does not result in severe physical injury.
Northern say they have merely clarified the rules, but the reality is that they are clamping down on the victims of abuse rather than those who dish it out, and I have had calls from members who are absolutely furious about the company’s hypocrisy.
We thought we had finally got the company to take seriously our members’ concerns about the growing level of violence they face every day, but it seems once more that they are more worried about their profits than the welfare of their staff,”
Based on Press Release from RMT
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