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 end of the licensing system and therefore weakens safety and job security.

How come? At the moment, to cover a particular duty, you have to have the right licences for the job - whether that's a lift licence, or a track licence, or whatever. Under management's new plans, they could probably just pass you off as 'competent', then when a duty needs covering, phone round and ask for a few competent people to pop over, with no need for any of that old-fashioned 'licensing' business.

Result? We'll end up being moved around even more, doing jobs we're not properly trained and qualified for, seeing reduced safety standards and opening the door to more 'flexibility' and therefore job cuts.