On the 5th February had an ad-hoc company council meeting with Tube Lines and for once unite and tssa turned up.
On the agenda was the following;
2015 Pay
RMT Ballot RRD’s and Driving, Track & Civil’s Section 15 Possessions
We requested that Pensions was also included on the agenda.
We started talking about Pensions and the fact that we have are still waiting for TFL pensions for all after reaching agreement on the savings and costs. Also that we pointed out when 2015 Pay was raised and management tied Night Tube to it we said we could not agree to Night Tube without Pensions.
Management refused to talk about Pensions until we agreed Pay and Night Tube and after that is all agreed they would then set up a meeting to talk about Pensions.
We of course again told them that as far as the RMT are concerned Night Tube and Pensions are linked and that Pensions have been on the table since 2012 and have had an agreement with the RMT to secure since 2015 left only to be ratified by the TFL Board. We even suggested Parallel talks which was rejected.
When management went on to talk about pay they did not have anything prepared although this was supposed to be the full and final offer which would mirror the LUL offer. We had to wait 20 minutes while management when and got a 1 page of paper to read off explains what the offer was.
We started questioning the offer and how it related to the LUL offer and it soon become clear that Tube Lines were not going to give the same offer as LUL regarding 4 day week, better rostering and movement of staff including leave. The RMT also raised the question regarding those Tube Line Staff on PRP. We were told that they are not part of the agreement but after a while it was agreed that all those in operations would receive the £500 lump sum consolidated. We also requested that the PRP Pay Bands were raised and that the 2% also be used as the figure for the PRP pay deal. They replied that they would consider this but it was not part of the Pay Negotiations.
As the talks continued it became clear that the offer did not mirror the LUL offer and was that bad and management so evasive that aslef said that they rejected the offer and that it was linked to the Pensions. Unite also supported our position.
Management then walked out refusing to continue talking and even refused to talk about important safety issues such as the Section 15 Possessions which were part of the agenda.
We requested that all industrial and health & safety reps are released on Tuesday 23 Feb for a meeting at Unity House for a full report back.