Transport for London

Most offices have been more or less shut down with staff asked to work from home. This is putting strain on the remote access network which has been temperamental at best. Things are a bit less clear for staff who don’t have their own laptop or PC at home - as most people access via their personal device. We should demand the company provide laptops for those who need them.

There are also rumours that TfL visitor centre staff have been told to work on stations, work for which they are not adequately trained or paid. Don’t do it!

As Unite members working in various TfL departments (Dial-a-Ride, bus revenue inspectors, streets enforcement workers, and others) gear up for another strike over pay on 28 February, TfL is now recruiting for a new grade of “Transport Support and Enforcement Officer” (TSEO), paid £27k per year, who’ll work “pan-modally”, across streets, buses, and LU.

Some of the material for this job suggests part of their role will be to provide a “physical intervention” against fare evasion and antisocial behaviour. They may even have devolved policing powers.

In recent weeks we’ve seen existing TfL revenue staff working in and around LU stations, to the extent of checking tickets on LU gatelines. This is essentially a form of outsourcing – work that should be done by directly-employed LU stations and revenue staff is being done by lower-paid workers employed by TfL.

Prospective TSEOs themselves are not the problem, the job description and contract is. We want those jobs to be converted into directly-employed LU revenue jobs, on the same terms and conditions, and levels of training, as existing LU RCIs. That’s what’s needed, not glorified bouncers forced to put themselves in harm’s way for the same money as a CSA2.

As the new TSEOs will be employed by TfL’s Compliance, Policing, and On-Street Operations (CPOS) department, where Unite is recognised, it will make more sense for Unite to organise them. But they must work closely with RMT to campaign for the levelling up of terms and conditions, and ultimately for TSEO jobs to be transferred into LU as RCI positions.

Revenue Control Inspectors in RMT have voted to take industrial action to resist the imposition of a two-tier workforce in the revenue department. There was a 100% vote for action short of a strike, and a 92% vote for strikes, on a 75% turnout.

RCI reps will now meet to discuss exactly what action to take and when. One possibility could be a joint strike alongside Unite members working in the revenue department at TfL, who are striking on the last Friday of every month until April.

Members of Unite working for Transport for London in revenue, enforcement, and Dial-a-Ride struck today, the first of four planned strikes on the last Friday of each month, until April. TfL has offered them a 1% pay rise, well below inflation. The workers held a lively picket outside Palestra, where many of TfL’s central administration is now based, where they were supported by RMT London Underground reps.

Links between these workers and RMT are especially vital, as part of LU’s plans for restructuring revenue involves having a new grade of TfL endorsement staff - Transport Safety Enforcement Officers, TSEOs - working on LU stations, in order to provide what TfL calls “a physical intervention” against fare evasion and antisocial behaviour. This will expose TSEOs to significant risk, and TfL plans to pay them just £27k, less than an LU CSA1, less than existing TfL revenue staff, and far less than an LU Revenue Control Inspector.

RMT has begun balloting Revenue Control Inspectors for industrial action to resist attacks on their grade. The ballot closes on 20 February. TfL and LU revenue staff, in Unite and RMT, must work together and coordinate action to fight for decent working conditions and to protect jobs.

We already know that management are using rising concerns about assaults as a pretext to undermine our jobs by bringing in staff from other areas of TfL to do station staff's work. Rather than increase station staffing, the company prefers staffing on the cheap, and is using Surface Transport staff for patrol duties.

Not only does this undermine Tube staff, it also puts the Surface Transport staff in danger - as highlighted by a recent incident at Barking.

A Surface Transport worker attended a suspected stabbing, but instead of thanking and supporting him, management told him off for not having a radio - that'll be the non-existent radio that they don't issue to these workers! Management were quick to point out that there is a lengthy document with some small print saying that you can have a radio if you ask nicely, but that's not good enough.

We need proper staffing to protect us against violence at work.

An LU Employee Bulletin announces that, to combat workplace violence and antisocial behaviour on the east end of the District Line, LU will be providing “20 additional colleagues”.

Good news, you might think. An acknowledgement that lone working and understaffing are the fundamental problems. But alas, the reality is not so encouraging.

These “colleagues” aren’t additional LU station staff, but staff drafted in from TfL’s Surface Transport department – workers who deal with taxi enforcement and revenue issues on buses. They are not trained or licensed to work on LU stations. They have no ability to intervene in any safety or security issue that takes place on the station.

LU aren’t even putting a sticking plaster on a gaping wound… they’re rubbing salt in it.

They’re also putting the Surface Transport workers, who are fellow transport workers and trade unionists, in an extremely difficult position by using them in this way. They shouldn’t have to be drafted in to be spare bodies when what’s so clearly needed is additional LU staff.

LU’s woefully inadequate response to issues of antisocial behaviour and workplace violence on District East, at West Ham, and elsewhere, show that the bosses are more committed to their agenda of penny-pinching budgetary savings than to the safety and wellbeing of workers.

It’s time for action. We need strikes to win a safe staffing level.

TfL likes to boast about its Learning Zone, about how it has given staff the opportunity to enhance our skills and to overcome the barriers presented to dylexic and other neurodivergent people. It's so proud of the facility that ... it's planning to close it.

Yes, the company can afford massive salaries for the big cheeses, numerous over-the-top contractor fees, but not a really valuable education service that costs the equivalent of such one-and-a-half staff.

We'd love to see industrial action against this, but in the meantime, please sign this online petition.

As TfL/LU push ahead with cuts planned under its “Transformation” process, RMT is balloting affected members for strikes and other industrial action. Workers affected include all ex-Tube Lines members, Palestra House (LUCC) Service Control, Signals, Skills Development, and Track Access Control.

The “Transformation” scheme, which has already claimed dozens of jobs in admin grades, threatens potentially thousands more. A planned three-day strike by fleet workers recently forced LU to back off from plans to extend train preparation schedules; strikes across affected grades could throw a spanner in the works of “Transformation”.

RMT must also plan to spread the dispute to other grades if initial action by the affected workers doesn’t get results.

The ballot opens on 26 June, and close on 16 July. Resist the cuts: vote yes/yes!

The Labour Party has a national policy commitment to end outsourcing when it goes into government. Great. But we already have a Labour mayor in City Hall. Not only is Sadiq Khan overseeing the continued outsourcing of cleaning, security, and cleaning, under his mayoralty, TfL and LU bosses are looking to outsource and privatise even more workers!

As part of the ongoing “Transformation” process of TfL/LU cuts, bosses plan to outsource waste collection services in outer London, currently done by directly-employed staff, to a private company. Workers’ terms, conditions, and jobs are at risk. (For more, see this RMT report here.)

RMT is now balloting for strikes against “Transformation” cuts. As fleet workers have recently shown, the threat of action can get results.

RMT has called a demo outside City Hall on Thursday 20 June. It demands “no Tory cuts under a Labour mayor”, pressing Sadiq Khan not to pass on Tory austerity to transport workers and users in London.

The two specific focuses are the “Transformation” scheme, which threatens thousands of jobs in engineering and admin roles, and the struggles of outsourced workers.

The demo assembles from 10:00. Tubeworker will be there, and we hope you will be too.