Chaos on 'Vanguard' Groups

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

One week in, and the 'vanguard groups' are in chaos, revealing what we knew all along - that management's policy isn't even Fit for the Present, let alone the Future.

Stations left unstaffed with ticket machines not working, staff sent from other stations to attend incidents at them, queues out of the doors, staff given duties and stations they are not licensed to work at, iPads and apps not working, cash-handling devices not handling cash properly, loads of people not trained to do what is expected of them, etc, etc, etc, etc. Meanwhile, work-life balance has gone out of the window, with much-increased weekend working.

This will only get worse when staff begin to leave the groups at the end of this week.

Staff are furious at what is going on, and a little bewildered at how our dispute has been 'resolved' with all this going on. The local RMT branch has already asked for a new ballot, but because this has to start from scratch, it'll be a couple of months before official action can be called. So union members are taking matters into their own hands in the workplace, exercising their rights to refuse to carry out duties they are not trained to do (and in the cash of cash handling, not confident to do even if trained), and reporting every incident.

Doubtless some of the 'teething problems' can be sorted with a tweak or a technical fix. But the big picture will only improve if we force management to retreat from the worst aspects of their new world, starting with putting back many of the jobs which have been cut.

And staff on the rest of the job - be warned. This is coming your way if we do not stand up for ourselves.

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