Workers' Liberty

Recent reports from new CSAs coming out of Ashfield House say that they only get five full days of training now!

It seems that staff destined for the Heathrow Terminal 5 are to be trained at Queen's Park station in detrainments.

Management have circulated a document to the disabled staff network group that should ring alarm bells for everyone - able-bodied and disabled alike. Under the progressive and welcome aim of employing more disabled staff in frontline jobs, they propose to remove some of the licensing requirements for station grades.

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.

It seems that many of the Control Room staff at Neasden have been working despite their safety-critical licensing having expired.

Tubeworker has been saying for a long long time that Station Supervisors ought to be track familiarised. Management's persistent failure to ensure this has led to many incidents of unnecessarily long service disruption and distress to staff.

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.

As management advertise for new CRAs, they will no doubt be expecting existing CRAs to coach the newcomers. But despite having agreed in principle to pay them a coaching allowance, they are dragging their feet about actually implementing it.

When a signal failed on the Victoria Line, the supervisor couldn't go down to secure the points because they weren't trained, leaving trains stuck in the tunnel for nearly an hour!

Management should not try to discipline this supervisor.

We were recently telling you about under-staffing causing problems with getting drivers re-licensed. Seems this affects other grades too.

Out on the Barkingside group, managers have been trying it on with staff, telling them that the company has "done away with" the requirement for 28 days' notice of ATOR and claiming that now you only need 5 days'.

Tubeworker has reported previously that the Regent's Park refurb included the physical bricking-up of the Ticket Office. It seems that this is not the only problem with it.

Tubeworker hears a rumour that management are looking at the possibility of CSAs not being track licensed. The phrases "saving money", "cutting corners" and "deskilling" come to mind. There are obvious implications for health and safety, especially for dealing with incidents and emergencies, where CSAs can be required to help on the track.

From 23rd May 2007, the Bakerloo line had five drivers whose Safety Critical Licences have expired, and who have also gone past their 28-day extensions. By management's own admission, they are therefore not qualified to drive trains in passenger service.

Even though many of the problems with Connect have still not been resolved, LUL is pressing ahead with training drivers in how the system 'works'.

New Jubilee Line drivers have fallen victim to a farcical 'pilot' stock training. Three weeks training has been squeezed into about seven days before the written test, followed by two days before the practical. Trainees whizz through the 14 modules contained in the manual in just five days, at such breakneck speed that it is easy to get left behind.

Management seem to think it is OK for Central Line drivers to learn about the new White City sidings in the classroom. That is, just in the classroom. No need to actually, erm, drive a train. We don't think so.

Trainee CSAs are working shifts on stations but only being paid 80% of the normal wages.

As ESAF rolls on, MFs are getting a whole five hours training in how the system works. Some people might suggest that is not enough. We will certainly need a longish period of grace to make mistakes without getting into trouble.

MFs are getting five hours' training on ESAF. Some might say that's really not enough, so there had better be a decent period of grace for people to make mistakes on the new system without getting into trouble.

Did you hear about the DSM (who is also the Health & Safety Champion) who thought it was OK for a CSA to familiarise a Station Supervisor? Thankfully he saw the light when the RMT H&S Rep caught whiff

Tubeworker has long bemoaned management's failure to ensure that station staff - particularly supervisors - are familiarised with the track at the stations where they work. Unlike station familiarisation (required by law), track familiarisation is pretty much random, and down to whether local managers get their act together to organise it or not. A station supervisor can even make repeated written requests and still get nowhere.

Managers are being "trained" to operate signalling equipment on the simulator at Griffith House, and being qualified and licensed without actually operating the equipment for real. They are then going on to operate signalling desks in control rooms. Recently, one manager took 14 minutes to take a release at Cobourg Street - any service operator who did this would almost certainly be on a DB.

Learning and Development was transferred from LUL to TfL a couple of years back. Now it's coming back again!

Tubeworker would really like to know how much this pointless exercise has cost - both in terms of money and of disruption to staff.

Ashfield House trainer and RMT rep Pat Houlihan has finally seen the back of the ridiculous disciplinary action taken against him.