Incident CSAs, with minimal training, have been sent onto stations over the Olympics, as LU follows the ‘retail model’ and equates station staff to low-paid, untrained, customer service workers.
RMT says ICSAs are not fully licensed. RMT has put on ‘action short of a strike’: they should not keep stations open or be used on the ‘paid’ side of the barrier.
LU has deployed ICSAs on Platform duties. Tubeworker has heard ICSAs have dispatched trains at a red signal. When a customer dropped something on the track at West Ham, one ICSA jumped onto the track and picked it up - without protection!
Tubeworker welcomes RMT’s response to this: puttng on extra ‘action short of strike’: instructing drivers not to stop at a station if dispatch staff are not qualified to CSA level.
This action will need explanation and organisation to be effective. Drivers are asking, ‘how do we know whether they are trained?’
The action could possibly be replaced with something easier to implement. Drivers and station staff should make this decision democratically.