Tubeworker's blog

Mayor Livingstone commisioned a Nuclear Transportation Risk Assesment for London due to concerns about trains carrying nuclear waste through London. This was awarded to Serco Assurance Limited.
Where do these trains travel? Over the Bakerloo Line and the London Overground, on both slow and fast...

Management have produced a hilarious question-and-answer thingy about their plan to slaughter ticket offices.

In a work that would do George Orwell's '1984' proud, they tell us that shutting ticket offices gives us new opportunities! great customer service! a world-class tube! You'd think that if...

Management continue to illustrate why they took on agency workers on the ex-Silverlink stations. Not only are they cheaper, but apparently management can get them to do stuff that they shouldn't - and which is, in some cases, dangerous. Latest examples? Carrying cash from station to station on...

Management have circulated a document to the disabled staff network group that should ring alarm bells for everyone - able-bodied and disabled alike. Under the progressive and welcome aim of employing more disabled staff in frontline jobs, they propose to remove some of the licensing requirements...

As you may know, we have been working under a 'new Rule Book' for half a year now without any up-to-date line supplements! Somewhat tricky when there is so much stuff specific to each line.

LUL is finally getting round to looking at the line supplements, but has put a spanner in the works by...

There has been a sudden and myseterious change to Section 4.2 of every Section 12 station's Emergency Plan. That's the clause that tells you your minimum staffing numbers, below which you can not open the station.

It used to specify how many of each grade eg. 1 Supervisor, 1 Station Assistant...

We know it's London Fashion Week soon, but this is going a bit far ...

In Heathrow management's latest wheeze, they want staff to wear a sash emblazoned 'Oyster Help' on the gateline! Is this Miss World - or perhaps Miss-Represented or Miss-Treated?! Staff are not mannequins, and will not be...

The light duties team have been sending CSAs to spy on other staff as part of their light duties, such as sending them on trains to listen to drivers' PA's.

Light duties should be a sign that management are showing duty of care to their staff. Sometimes it is used by management to pressurise staff...

At Tottenham Court Road, staff working to cover the all-night opening of the Tube on New Year's Eve were not exactly rewarded with appreciation from their managers.

Small things like food for night staff - especially necessary are there aren't that many places to get your lunch at 3am - consisted...

LUL has sacked London Bridge SAMF Gyles Henry over an alleged incident with a customer.

But the company's only 'evidence' against Gyles is the say-so of a different customer who admitted there was no violence involved but speculated that there might have been!

So there you have it - staff can now...

There is no reason for any further delay by our unions in calling action against LUL’s attacks on our jobs.

LUL now has security guards and agency staff working on its stations, and is persisting in its plans for ‘mobile supervisors’ who cover more than one station at a time. Meanwhile, the company...

LUL wants to water dwon your right to refuse to work on safety grounds.

Management want to introduce a rule that you carry on working until a manager confirms your view that it's unsafe! Just a couple of seconds thought shows why this is crazy. So there's asbestos hanging out of the ceiling? So the...

LUL management have sacked two Canary Wharf Station Supervisors over some missing Kitcats! We kid you not.

Station staff often have to put up with commercial promotions on our stations, which can cause disruption, congestion and litter. There is no proper agreement or procedure about these...

LUL management are on the warpath against union reps' release. They have written to all the unions, declaring their intention to 'review' release arrangements. We can safely assume their intention is not to recognise loads more reps and give them loads more release to carry out their roles...

Since the take over of the Silverlink station at Queens Park a new roster was imposed which could only be achieved by having more staff. Guess what? No more staff, roster introduced anyway, putting a strain on existing staff members.

Station Supervisors have also been told that they now have to run...

There is an RMT reps meeting next Tuesday (15th), 10am at Unity House, to discuss the destaffing and casualisation issues. Level one reps are released to attend the meeting, but any RMT member is welcome to attend.

It is important that there is a good and vocal turnout from RMT's rank and file, to...

Note to East Ham group management. You can not make someone work a night turn one day and a late turn the next. Just to stress: a person can not be made to book off in the morning then book on again mid-afternoon the very same day.

We are all entitled to 12 hours rest between duties - it's in the...

Imagine starting work for LUL, doing your training, and being told what group you are going to work on. Off you go, settle in to working on the group, perhaps move house into the area.

Then management tell you that they shouldn't really have sent you there, whoops, so they are going to displace you...

One of the (many) problems with the way Oyster is set up is that when visitors leave the country, they often miss out on claiming back their £3 deposit or unused pre-pay because they can't find an open ticket office with a short enough queue to make it worthwhile cashing in their chips.

Rather...

For the busiest two weeks of the year, in the run-up to Xmas, management introduced SATS on extra platforms, and extended the SATS times by 1.5 hours. No surprise, they provided no extra staff for these extra duties, leaving staff on their own on the gateline during the peak, cutting back on our...

Remember the scandal of the less than adequate train prep on the Central Line when the Metronet strike was called off? And remember Tubeworker saying we would not hold our breath waiting for the HMRI to deal with it?

It's a good job we didn't, cos we'd have died of asphixiation long since. Since...

So, the marvellous Connect radio system has 'gone live' on the Bakerloo line.

Only problem is: it is affecting the volume of the PA, T-Test and DVA.

Will management ever get this right?!

Drivers and duty managers at Morden depot are to ballot for strike action to demand that LUL reinstate Duty Manager Trains Sarah Appleby.

Sarah left work to look after her sick mother, and unknown to her, was summoned to an 'unannounced' drugs and alcohol test in her absence. She took - and passed...

RMT's protest against East London line privatisation last week turned out to be something of a wake. The turnout wasn't great, possibly because many workers - perhaps especially those who work on the line - felt that it was too little too late. And possibly because everyone knows that demonstrations...

As we all know, 'competence assurance' has been running on the job for a few years now, but plays second fiddle to the essential system of licensing staff to carry out particular roles. But management want to uprate it to 'competence management', and Tubeworker can't help but suspect that it spells...

The litany of bizarre 'SPAD reduction' gimmicks continues unabated, with the Northern Line now getting in on the act. Apparently, management seriously believe that painting the lower part of trainstops red will help prevent drivers starting up against red signals.

Management claim that the...

Saturday morning, and a 'customer' decides to deposit a poo on the stairs at Temple station. The cleaner set about cleaning it up - but her employer, Initial, hadn't bothered to supply her with gloves! And when the Station Supervisor - having given the cleaner a pair of gloves from his first aid kit...

Tubeworker is well in favour of elections for union reps taking place in the workplace, so we are pleased to see that two RMT branches have decided to introduce this system.

Morden & Oval branch held workplace-ballot elections last week, and around 160 of 300 eligible members cast a vote. That's...