Finsbury Park closed today when station staff refused to work on safety grounds.
A local union safety rep was shocked to find that contractors had isolated fire detection devices in secure rooms without taking the steps in their Method Statement to ensure safety. So staff refused to work, and the problem was swiftly rectified. But quite rightly, station staff were not prepared to work with the Project Manager who had authorised this reckless risk-taking, and things stood at a deadlock until his booking-off time of 19:00.
Metronet's negligence just goes from bad to worse. How are they allowed to get away with having people in charge who think that basic safety rules can be discarded?
Everyone should be alert to safety breaches by the Infracos. If it happens on your station, follow the example of Finsbury Park staff and walk off the job. It is only when we take a stand against this that TfL - and ultimately the government - will have to boot off the cowboys and reverse the whole disastrous PPP experiment.
