LU’s Station Supervisors Handbook went live last week.
It is one further step towards turning supervisors into mini managers.
The vast bulk of it centres on SS’s contribution to the ‘performance scorecard’. SS’s are encouraged to boost LU’s results in so many measures – ‘Real time information’, ‘Staff and information surveys’ and ‘cleanliness and presentation’ (which is laughable when we have so few cleaners!). The handbook even provides advice on boosting results Tubeworker did not even know existed - including the ridiculous ‘POM share of transactions’ measure, which ‘identifies the proportion of activity conducted at passenger operated machines instead of ticket office machines’.
There is also a section about how to manage with a ‘shortage of staff’, advising SS’s to ‘try to cover any gaps by reorganising other staff on duty’ while ‘not causing other coverage issues’. This confirms what we’ve seen in practice for a long time: LU systematically understaffs stations. They make it the responsibility of staff on duty to cope with the shortfall. Gone are the days when, you know, LU actually provided enough staff! Understaffing is part of the way we do things, according to this Handbook.
A lot of it is about how SS’s should conduct P and D’s, although it does make clear that SS’s do this on a voluntary basis. As long as it’s voluntary, SS’s should refuse to comply with this move to turn them into managers. LU want a more disciplined, managed workforce, where staff care more about the ‘scorecard’ than the needs of the customers right in front of them.
The unions need to publicise their opposition to the entire purpose of this Handbook before its teaching sets in.
