No Witness Available?

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

A member of station staff has been given a suspended dismissal by LU - a "gross misconduct" charge, the highest disciplinary sanction short of actually being sacked - for conducting cash-handling work without getting a witness... because they were lone working, and there was no witness available.

An explanation for non-station staff: any cash-handling work, such as moving money from ticket machines to safes, requires the worker doing the job to get a second member of staff to formally witness them doing it, and to log in to a computerised system to affirm that they've done this. If the work doesn't get done, ticket machines can break down, leading to serious problems on stations.

But following the Fit for the Future cuts, many stations have large amounts of lone working. Staff are expected to conduct all tasks - customer service work, ticket office work, booking on contractors, etc. - on our own. So what are we supposed to do when there's no witness available?

It's outrageous for LU to cut staffing levels, impose lone working, and then charge us with gross misconduct for doing our jobs the only way possible!

RMT reps have said that if LU don't withdraw the sanction, the union should instruct staff who are lone working not to do any cash handling work at all.

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