Workers' Liberty

Like most stations, Embankment was just about struggling by with the skeleton staffing levels it was left with in the wake of the 35-hour week: in the peak, two CSAs on the gateline, one on each of two platforms.

LUL has upheld the outrageous sacking of Eva Bayford on appeal.

At Earls Court control centre, management have introduced 'corrective action plans'. A member of staff gets so many 'items' and they are hauled off by a manager to 'agree' and implement a plan.

Management have again been covering stations without a station supervisor.

You would think that your health and safety rep was entitled to inspect all the areas where you work, right?

Tower Hill Group management has sacked two young probationers Tomi David and Eva Bayford.

Elm Park has had a bit of trouble with its OPO equipment, meaning that the platform had to be staffed to give drivers the right (or 'assisted despatch' as we are all supposed to call in now).

Note to East Ham group management. You can not make someone work a night turn one day and a late turn the next.

Saturday morning, and a 'customer' decides to deposit a poo on the stairs at Temple station.

West Brompton station inherited two platforms and a lift from Silverlink. Management said this would make precious little difference to the station, and would certainly not require any extra staff or an uprating of West Brompton, which is one of the few remaining SS3 stations.

Hammersmith group management seem to think they can change staff's working practices without any consultation.

East Ham group's new GSM is busy making himself very unpopular with staff.

As part of the impending Silverlink transfer, LUL stations Highbury & Islington, Blackhorse Road and West Brompton are to take on responsibility for the Silverlink platforms. Obviously, then, additional responsibilities would entail extra work, extra insepctions, extra fault reporting - and, you'd think, extra staff, and perhaps a notch-up of the station's complexity rating (giving a pay rise to the Supervisors).

The Circle and Hammersmith & City lines and the District line's Wimbledon branch have come to a halt this evening as drivers refuse to go along with management's wish to operate trains that may be fatally unsafe.

As management fell over themselves to get the train service running after the Metronet strike was called off, it appears that they may have been prepared to cut some corners when it came to safety standards. Yes, really.

LUL staff are used to management playing fast and loose with safety rules during strikes. Now it seems that Metronet's management have caught on too.

Barking sidings are so dark as to be unsafe. The measure for lighting levels is such that over 30 is OK, between 20 and 30 requires a risk assessment, less than 20 and the location should close until the problem is rectified. The level at Barking sidings? 4.

Tubeworker has reported previously about the staffing levels crisis on the east end of the District line.

This really hit rock bottom on Saturday 4th August, when West Ham United played Roma and the station was left woefully understaffed.

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.

Management's plan to more-than-decimate our ticket offices continues apace. And there is a real mood amongst rank-and-file workers to fight back against it. Passengers too. A petition put together by staff at Boston Manor has already gathered more than 2,000 signatures. Repeat this across the stations and we would be well on our way to building the momentum we need to stop these cuts.

LUL's ticket office closure plan will force many SAMFs to be displaced, including many who were displaced only just over a year ago under the 35-hour week.

On the East End of the District Line the safety of staff and passengers are being put at risk to save money on Overtime. We at Tubeworker do not support the principle of overtime - we would rather there were enough staff to cover any eventuality. That said, LUL management have left us desperately short of cover staff so overtime has become a necessity to safely cover stations.

A night station supervisor at Dagenham East station was disgusted to find the sanitary bin in the toilets overflowing and its contents spilling accross the floor. He reported the fault, but was told it couldn't be dealt with until late the following morning.

Maybe you thought that the problems with Connect would have been overcome by now. Think again.

Recently, a driver needed to get the juice off at Upney following a one-under. After three unsuccessful attempts to send a Mayday message to the Controller on Connect, he had to give up and use his personal mobile phone!

Night cleaners have been removed on the Central line and District line. These cleaners work for ISS, the same company that is trying to lay off 200 cleaners on TubeLines contracts at the moment - a move that RMT is fighting.

Season's greetings to all those who relied on District line staff taxis to get home after dead-late turns on Christmas Eve. They spent up to an hour waiting in the dark of the small hours of Christmas Day waiting for cabs that were running well late.

Readers might remember our report about District Line Control telling station staff to remove 'lost property' from a train - except it wasn't lost property but an unattended bag. Well, we had hoped that following complaints by the station concerned, this unfortunate and unsafe incident would not be repeated. But unfortunately, on Tuesday it was.

'Tube Meltdown' screamed the newspaper headlines as this morning several lines went totally up the wall.

One upshot was that some early-turn Earls Court service control staff were held up on their way to work. Apparently, management decided that it wasn't really worth sending a taxi to get them in, presumably expecting that the night shift would just hang around until their reliefs got there.

The job was up the wall on the District, Circle and Central Lines this morning, due to yet more late surrenders by Metronet. Severe delays are continuing through the morning.

Sorry, were we just saying that Metronet is crap?

Remember that little problem with opening Cannon Street on a Sunday when Charing Cross mainline is closed and overground services run from Cannon Street instead? Well, it's cropped up again.