Wednesday 30 December 2015


A couple of weeks ago LU quietly placed an advert for part-timer TOps to work  Night Tube.



The job description states “Salary: £49,673 pro rated dependant on the confirmed weekly hours you are allocated (15 hours per week equates to approx. £21,288 p.a.)” which suggests that there might be some variation in the number of shifts and the amount of hours but in the FAQs it repeatedly states that the job will be 15 hours a week on Friday and Saturday nights only with no variation.  Once they get the job they'll have to work 18 months before being allowed to apply for full time vacancies or change depots.

The last time they tried to recruit directly from the public rather than internally was about 15 years ago, back then they had thousands of applications most of which were rejected, most of those who got through to training failed the TOps course and I believe the whole affair only produced about 30 new TOps.  The rest were sent to stations as CSAs and allowed to reapply for the TOps course after six months but this time it’s different, it clearly state that if the applicant fails at any stage of the recruitment process, testing or training they will find themselves back on the street.

Applicants are warned that the 16 week training course will be full time but there’s no mention of CDP/ATOR/5 day block, it certainly seems odd to omit that roughly once a year they’ll be required to come in M-F 9-5 and somehow I don’t imagine the trainers are going to be interested in holding CDP courses at night or weekends.  This also raises the question of corrective actions plans, where a TOp who has made an error has to work with an IOp and the same for supervision in the cab after “one unders”.

The closing date is 11pm Monday 4th January although they say they are expecting a high response and will stop taking applications once they think they’ve got enough but as of this morning with 6 days to go it’s still there on TfL website.  I don’t know how many part time TOps would be needed for Night Tube but advertising over the Christmas/New Year period with what seems to be very little publicity doesn’t seem likely to attract a “pool” of applicants large enough to produce the required number of TOps.

TfL cover themselves will a neat little bit tucked away in the middle that says “There may be a requirement to delay your start date until you are required.”  So even if you jump through all the hoops they might never give you the job because they still don’t know if Night Tube is going to happen.

9 comments:

  1. Anyone would think that Tfl management don't want night tube to actually happen. But of a waiting game until the Mayoral elections in May when it is likely to be kicked further into the long grass than it already is. Of course that then creates the headache of what to do with the station night tube staff that have permanent contracts (some of who switched from full time contracts).

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  2. That also means no pay rise still if no night tube, although hopefully the Unions, will start to put pressure on over the pay rise if night tube is going constantly, be put back. It appears to be madness to have inexperienced Drivers dealing with the most challenging passengers who will unlike most daytime passengers.

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    1. The new bods will have completed their training, they'll have had two months on the front of a train with an IOp and will have passed their road test so they'll be no different from any of us on our sweat day.

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    2. True to an extent but didn't you rightly state how difficult those guys found it last time? An I.O on my line was from that last direct recruitment and even she voiced how challenging it was.

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    3. I don't think anyone mentioned how the DROps got on, back then I was on stations. I do remember a few years ago that when they tried to shorten the stock training for some new Piccadilly Line TOps they had to go back because they were struggling.

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  3. Who are LU looking to recruit in this campaign? Surely most people can't take 16 weeks off work, so I don't think it's likely many will be able to do it as a second job.

    I would be be interested in the role, but just can't live of 15 hours salary. A 22.5 hour contract would be a different story for me through.

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  4. There's currently a list of people internally who have passed T/Op assessments and are awaiting training dates. Surely the role could have been offered to any of them first?

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    1. They probably wouldn't be interested in a £10000 a year pay cut when they've started thinking about a £20000 a year pay rise.

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  5. Hmmm....?
    In back of TC #1 asking for existing T/Ops to get in touch if interested in job share or reduced hours, to create database.

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