LU threatens to dock drivers' pay for upholding safety standards

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

Aslef and RMT's additional industrial action short of strikes, named in response to LU's safety breaches (see here) has clearly got the company panicked.

The unions rightly declared that no member should take a train into service if it hadn't been properly prepped by properly licensed staff. A 24 July Employee Bulletin, signed by Peter McNaught and Pat Hansberry (Operations Directors for the BCV and JNP respectively) says: "should you choose to take part in this action, and, as a consequence refuse to operate a train or take a train out of service at any point prior to the end of your shift, you will forfeit your pay for the entire shift."

This is a quite spectacular threat from the company. What is their legal basis for doing this?

Let's be clear about what's happening here: the company is cutting corners on train prep because Fleet workers are refusing to do overtime, and putting improperly-prepped trains into service, in clear breach of safety regulations, putting workers and passengers at risk. And their response to union objections to this is... to threaten to dock our pay! Whether there was industrial action in place or not, there is clear legal provision for workers to refuse to work on the grounds of health and safety. If Train Ops decide trains are unsafe due to substandard prep or maintenance, management are saying they will refuse to pay us!

If the company carries through with those outrageous attempt to bully us out of participating in lawful industrial action, we can see a lot of Employment Tribunal claims for illegal deduction of wages on the horizon.

The way to respond to bullies is to stand up to them. Our next strikes after 5-6 August must step up beyond 24 hours. Stand firm, uphold the action, escalate the strikes!

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