The London Buzz – 20th December 2024
21 hours ago
Monday, 30 May 2016
And just when we thought everything about Night Tube was settled it seems that management can't leave anything alone. The week before last I heard that when the new timetable is introduced along with the introduction of 37 part time TOps working Friday and Saturday nights the number of full time TOps will be reduced, I've now learnt that there will be 8 less places at LES, 10 at WHC and 15 at HAI with the WHC TOps said to be going to Queen's Park while the ones from the east end of the line will find themselves at Earl's Court on the District Line. What makes things even more unpalatable is that the number of TOps at LOU has been expanded, I'm informed they've had 25 brand new TOps join over the past year and I believe that WER has also had some fresh arrivals.
Management will give a annual bonus (I believe the figure is £6k) to the displaced TOps but as with Night Tube they don't seem to realise that money isn't everything. One of the LES TOps who will be forced to move only got here from WHC recently and understandably she is less than happy, had she stayed at WHC she'd have been better off. This issue will be raised at branch meetings over the next few weeks but even among those of us senior enough not to be effected the overwhelming attitude seems to be that this is grievously unfair and we are prepared to take strike action if necessary.
Maybe management could try asking for volunteers rather than imposing displacement, maybe there are some TOps who would take £6k for a move but speaking for myself its not worth having to get a staff taxi back across London after a dead late.
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At the beginning of last year a large number of brand new full time drivers joined night tube lines. These drivers are over establishment and therefore under the terms of the TOPRA they can be moved around. Most of the night tube lines are currently over subscribed due to this (full time drivers were going to run night tube as you know)
ReplyDeleteTherefore as all of that has now changed, and it is going to be run by part time TOps, the drivers that are 'over establishment' could be utilised elsewhere.
The driver that you have written about could be safe, as they may be an established driver. Under the terms of the TOPRA depot seniority is not necessarily the date a driver joins a depot. For example if that driver put their name down on the waiting list for LES in 2014, and a group of brand new TOps joined LES in 2015, and she got her position in 2016, She would have seniority over them.
The process of moving new drivers in not uncommon, for the Olympics on the jubilee they sent over lots of new drivers to cover the enhanced timetable. Once the Olympics was over, loads of these drivers were shipped over to the next project (Nothern TBTC)
I totally understand the frustration if an established driver was being displaced.
However for new drivers its something that should be expected until they get an actual depot position as it's stated in the TOPRA!
Don't forget movement is expensive, so not something anyone wants unless it has to happen. You want to make a suggestion maybe?
ReplyDeleteSome of the figures are wrong, plus there is NO money offered re displacement.
ReplyDeleteAlso it's train grade seniority that decides who may get displaced not time at depot.
Can't see company pushing this though as we will go into dispute. Why should drivers pay for management incompetence? It was management that transferred/recruited too many drivers last year when they were trying to push through NT - not right that those drivers now have to lose out because of it.
I have heard that it is the Unions who are asking,for the money if a Driver is displaced and the new depot is more than 45 minutes away. The Management have not offered any money. I got this information from a local Union rep by the way. One way around it would be to offer severance, to the most senior Drivers, I really can't see that happening. One thing you can be sure off 6 months down the line after the Drivers have left, I will turn up on a Saturday as a late turn spare Driver and there will be uncovered duties!
ReplyDeleteIt's quite an extraordinary series of shambles for those waiting, or being moved, or those who have been moved and are being moved again or anyone joining the most hated/desired job in London!
ReplyDeleteI'm fairly new (18 months) who joined full-time last Jan. Will I be moved? Who knows? I doubt even resourcing know!
Putting my own grievances and issues to one side, the whole issue of who goes where has been bubbling under the surface for a number of months as people debate depot-wise "Should i stay or should i go?" aswell as the chopping and changing of nominations by drivers due to new information from so-and-so about depot cultures, rotas, new rotas, new shifts, etc etc and the uncertainty surrounding night tube.
And here we have the culmination of mismanagement; But not just of the managers in Resourcing and Seniors but also of the Union Reps on T.Council.
Now my Union brethren and yes some managers, do some stellar work, but on this occasion, for whatever reason of which i know not, they've spectacularly messed up. From the new driver nomination process, to over-establishment it's been seemingly unfair, sporadic and random.
I'm also particularly appalled at some of the attitudes from new drivers and of so-called "Established," seniors.
Unless you have an incredibly perilous personal circumstance - for which there is due process - New Drivers should not complain too much if they get moved and they are in the pool: I mean for fooks sake you're literally one of the last bunch of full-timer drivers to be hired for the foreseeable future doing what even the most anti-union Londoner would literally punch someone to get. If the new drivers don't like it, maybe they should pay a visit to their old stations and ask their colleagues what FitForTheFuture means!
Established Drivers esp those over 45+ who have dedicated and built the conditions I enjoy: Fantastic. Much respect and appreciation.
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But it is the unfairness I witness amongst those few Old-School drivers with power in the decisions regarding timetables, movements, rotas and syndicates that really grates and leaves a very bad reminder of the worst excesses and complacency amongst Union-folk "Back in The day."
It's not fair, It ain't alright but hey I'm not a senior so on those 3 fronts I must not complain too much or else there'll be a horses head/ballast in my bed.
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The real people I feel for are:
Drivers who've waited to go to a depot after nominating. They get there. There life is now good after often much hardship commuting 2 hours each way in packed staff taxis (Why do 7 seaters often have 2 people and the 5 seaters are full???). And now after 2 months on their ideal depot and maybe moving house: bye bye go elsewhere?
That is poor management.
I have not heard the 6k offer. I have yet to be offered it!
I feel sorry for new drivers getting shafted at certain depots by certain mafias who continue to give mates literally the best shifts ever and leave the newbies with absolutely ridiculous deals. A friend in a pool asked for a particular day off. His payback? Work 7 shifts in a row to get it. Or better yet, how about leaving pool spares to cover actual duties that Matey McMateFace doesn't want to do?
Respect to good syndicates
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Now onto resourcing and management. I don't envy the job. If you help one person you piss off another. I and other reasonable people understand there is an element of luck and give and take.
ReplyDeleteBut understand too that you could have improved the situation immeasurably by actually giving a shit where people live and offering a system of allowing people to wait for training if it coincided with a closer depot being available rather then the "These are dates for training, we don't know what the business needs are, come once and find your fate!"
Finally the good folk who waited for years for their name to rise up a heavy depot waiting list only to last year be told "Err, yeah you can't go as we've moved a bunch of brand new T/Ops to your depot. So they've kinda taken your place. Oh you don't like that? Well, er, Business Needs. Yeah Business Needs. Business Needs."
Repeat and rinse.
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So: Mass displacements, waiting lists all over the place, unfair depot practices, certain poor management, long commutes with packed cabs and 3 changes, nonsensical nomination process reforms and night tube drivers twiddling thumbs at certain places and business needs.
T/Ops, welcome to the world that station staff live in.
ReplyDeleteYou beat me to it......this is what has indeed happened to station staff. Masses moved from one end of the line to another without any real say. It seems that management just want to keep putting the boot in time after time.
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