Saturday 24 December 2016

As I said in my last post I've had a lot to deal with recently and also I had two weeks annual leave at the end of November so I've not been keeping tabs on anything that didn't directly involve me at work.  That was why I wasn't aware until recently that RMT station and revenue staff have been refusing to work overtime since 23rd November with TSSA members joining them on 8th December.

Conveniently each Tube line has a Twitter accounts which records every closure along with the reason why they were closed so it was pretty easy to scroll back though the history to check.  In the last three  weeks HOP has been closed ten times due to "staff absence", if the Twitter feed is accurate then the worst instance was when it closed on 17 December at 18:34 and didn't reopen until 07:21 the next morning.  QUE has been closed five times, CHL four times with single closures at BOS, LIS, BAN, STP and BEG.  I'm sure if anyone had the time and inclination they could check the Twitter feeds of all the other lines to record all the closures.

Of course these are all Section 12 stations with minimum staffing levels, what isn't recorded on Twitter are the non-Section 12 stations (like Latimer Road) that can be left unstaffed and still remain open.  What I find utterly amazing about all this is that it is less than a year since Fit for the Future - Stations was rolled out with a complete reorganisation of station staff and the 37 station "Groups" replaced by 96 "Areas" so staffing levels shouldn't be this low this soon.

What it suggests to me is that there aren't enough Reserve staff available to cover sickness and annual leave.  When I first joined the Tube as a Station Assistant in 1997 I was on the Reserve of Edgware Road Group which covered Paddington, Edgware Road and Bayswater, I was familiarised at all three stations but how it works now that Paddington is an Area on its own I have no idea.

When management announced that the ticket offices were closing they promised that all stations would be staffed at all times when trains were running but they've not even managed to last a year before that promise has been broken.  RMT and TSSA are going on strike over this on 8 January and I can't say I blame them.

11 comments:

  1. Their promise to keep all stations staffed during traffic hours failed on day one. On the Central there were, I believe, 7 different non section 12 stations unstaffed at some point on the first day of FFF Stations.

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  2. Good to see you back.
    What gets me is why anyone should be surprised. As we all know what looks good on paper never works in real life. It's cost cutting pure and simple. Southern lad's and lasses will tell you that with DOO. A couple concept that's making its way up here in t'North at merseyrail and and our lot at Northern will be next. Plus ca change plus ça meme chose!!

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  3. Why is this utterly amazing? The proportion of reserve capacity is 37%, same as it's always been and unplanned gaps in coverage have always happened from time to time. There's a lot of training happening right now, which doesn't help I agree, but the main cause of the recent closures is the overtime ban. It's industrial action, plain and simple so really not very amazing at all. If you increase the reserve proportion so you didn't rely on some overtime then this would cost more and deprive us of the chance to earn more money. I don't think any other railway in the UK rosters staff at every station 24/7 and I don't know of any foreign metros that do this either as it's relatively expensive. Perhaps it's a bad idea - what do you think?

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    1. What happens on other UK railways or elsewhere is irrelevant, when Mike Brown announced that ticket offices would be closed he stated that all stations would be fully staffed at all times when trains were running, a commitment which was repeated and emphasised whenever the issue of staffing was raised by the unions.

      As overtime is voluntary then there is no guarantee that all the necessary shifts will be covered and as the new system has been in place for less than a year there shouldn’t be a significant shortage especially since the overall establishment was cut by 952 positions..

      Back in the late 90s/early 00s when I was on stations the only time I got overtime was when my Group’s staffing was below the establishment, otherwise there were enough reserves to cover training, annual leave and sickness. The one occasion when I was asked to cover a duty at the station that would otherwise fall below the minimum staffing level I was rostered to work at another station that was fully staffed.

      I'm not familiar with the fire regulations on railways in other countries but then they didn't have Kings Cross.

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    2. Just to give you a sense of how many outer London stations are unstaffed at the top end of the Met, Currently Eastcote. Ruislip Manor and Ickenham all have no staff owing to staff shortages. We have plenty of unstaffed stations even before the overtime ban. Also so many staff now commute from miles away they've no interest in trekking halfway across London for 4 hours overtime on their only Saturday off that month

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    3. Indeed, I regularly see staff in LUL uniform going to/from work at Milton Keynes station and I bet that's not the furthest from London that LUL staff live.

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  4. In reply to anonymous on 27/12. Why should the underground be reliant on people working overtime to run the system. They should be honouring their commitment to staff stations at all times as a consequence for closing the ticket office.
    I could have worked both my rest days this week but I'd battered the overtime before Xmas and quite frankly I needed the break. As a driver working too many rest days leads to fatigue and complacency. It's why Hidden was brought in

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  5. Hi - I don't do 'twitter' (not just age but also non-comprehension of it) but would like to access those station closures. Any (repeatable!) suggestions? Does Twitter 'relay' to the internet?

    Also, as an ex-Underground and Rail worker, dependency on overtime has always worried me for exactly why Hidden came in. Overtime lets management employ fewer people. If people need overtime for a decent income, something's wrong. There will always be 'gobblers' - we all want something better - but those who NEED that money are those to be concerned about.

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    1. Twitter does indeed relay to the Internet as you so quaintly put it! For us non Twitter users at least some is visible e.g. for the Central line it's https://twitter.com/centralline where you'd get notification of stuff like closures but without some of the inane waffling that goes with the full Twitter experience.

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  6. So today's strike hits hard it seems. This government have lost control of transport in their quest to smash the two unions left who have any muscle. Because trust me that is what this is all about. And believe me if they have a big enough majority at the next election,making railways "essential services "and so subject to non strike laws will be the first thing they do

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  7. LUL got a bloody nose on the 9th - impressive walkout. Lets hope now they realise the extent of the problems and feeling.

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