The RMT have held talks with senior managers at CPD Signals over the concerns our members have over the lack of work and downtime (no available work) where we have seen up to 40 people with no work on occasion.
The reality is that in the Project Area there has been a move to the work being down in weekend BTRs and night tube has affected the work being done on that night. Couple that with our members tending to work Monday to Friday Nights and a general down turn in normal work being done then it is obvious to foresee a situation where downtime increases. This obviously impacts job security in the longer term but also personal dignity and ability to maintain licensing
To the end, the RMT are demanding:
- The company looks to prioritise internal Signalling work to these staff. It is a ludicrous situation where certain jobs are given to companies such as Kelly Rail (among others) and not our own staff.
- That the way the ‘internal charging’ is done so that staff are just sent as staff rather than with an overhead
- End of silo thinking. We understand people looking at their own budgets, however, if some work costs LUL as a whole more, then it is the economy of the madhouse to not give that work to internal LUL workers that have no work that night
- Look to compete for other work. We see a massive investment in the SSL Signals upgrade and therefore fully utilising CPD Signals would seem an obvious choice. In the past, this organisation has even won contracts abroad to do re-signalling projects in countries such as Australia and Hong Kong
- Invest in training staff on new technology so that they have the skills to work on all available assets
- Look for volunteers to work rosters on agreed rostered rates of pay to have the staff available when the work is. This is a very contentious issue as staff on Nights have always fought and won the right for Monday to Friday Working. However, it would be wrong of us not to explore every eventuality to ensure our members job security.
- LUL to stop the cuts in this area and do the work that the railway needs to be done
Our reps will be going to workplaces as soon as possible to speak to our members on this matter.
However, we also need to be clear that we will not be accepting a slow death of any of our areas and intend to fight to make sure our members have job security and a job that is worth having.