Workers' Liberty

Management seem to think it's OK for a Supervisor to book on at Canons Park at 06:45 but not do a station check until after 10:30.

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.

It seems that we all continue to ignore the new Rule Books, preferring to stick to procedures that we know are safe. For instance, earlier this week, during the signal failure on the District line, a driver needed to do a Wrong Direction Move near Dagenham East - and naturally, needed the station supervisor to give him authorisation to do so. Never mind that under the new 'Rules' the SS no longer has any role in a WDM: we all know it's not safe without that form.

A TubeLines Site Person in Charge accepted a forged Permit to Enter to a machine chamber at Old Street. The Station Supervisor picked up on it, and the unauthorised person left the station, but TubeLines did not query their procedures on how this had come about.

Under the new Rule Book, Station Supervisors lose the following responsiblities:

Managers are now giving the new Rule Book out to staff.

Management now seem set on withdrawing the 'second right' in certain circumstances - if the train has in-cab CCTV and/or the station has PED doors. Management intend that this come into effect when the new rule book is issued.

Northern Line management are proposing a change, to allow Line Controllers to authorise drivers to apply the rule over the radio. There are two big reasons why we should oppose this:

1. Is the radio actually secure?

Here's another little gem from the Working Reference Manual review.

Details continue to slip out about the Working Reference Manual review, and mangement's slapdash attitude to safety.

So you thought that the Rule Book was, er, a book of rules that you have to follow? We thought so too, but it seems that we might have been wrong.

Apparently, a Rostered Duty Officer (a what?) can bend the rules if s/he carries out a "dynamic risk assessment" in "real time". At least, that's the explanation that management finally came up with to justify an incident ealier this year when a faulty Picc line train was propelled from the rear with no direct communication between the people at the rear and at the front.