Working Blind

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

Management are introducing a new 'surplus and loss' procedure for the ticket office. It establishes the principle that a ticket seller can be punished for a discrepancy in their account, although we work with a 'blind banking' system.

In the ticket office, you just bag up your money. You do not count it. You even get into trouble for checking the system to see how much you are supposed to have in your account!

Management produced a draft policy; the unions produced a counter-proposal. Management produced a final policy that incorporates virtually none of the union's recommendations.

Following ten minor discrepancies, you will face a warning. Most concerningly, a discrepancy of £50 or more will be automatically 'gross misconduct', will go to a Company Disciplinary Interview, where you could face the sack. Considering the enormous sums ticket sellers handle each day (a couple of thousands each time you empty a machine), a £50 error is quite conceivable.

With the AFMs selling Oysters now, we're sure we've not seen the back of ticket office job cuts. Is this just one way of getting rid of excess SAMFs easily?

The unions will not agree to this policy, so it is likely to be imposed. We should do as much as we can to resist it. Maybe a form of 'unofficial' industrial action could be to insist on our right to count the money in our till to protect ourselves from punishment?

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