From 20 July, on-train and platform staff working for East Midlands Trains. have refused to work rest days and overtime and are working to rule. This has caused numerous train delays and cancellations, particularly on Sunday 28 July.
The two to one result in the ballot for action short of strike is a welcome reversal of previous failures to respond to management attacks.
The dispute is due to a breakdown in industrial relations which covers several issues. One of these was rostering during the shutdown of Nottingham station for five weeks worth of long- planned engineering work.
A few days before the start of the work, bosses tried to impose an emergency roster on a lot of staff, claiming it was part of their T&Cs. It isn’t: but maintaining that position is a desperate attempt to cover up EMT’s woeful negligence in not making any serious effort to come to a similar arrangement with these staff like they did months before with train drivers (who are now working normally).
Going on past history, management must have thought they could ignore everybody else. Imagine their surprise when they heard the ballot result!
• For more on East Midlands, see the latest issue of Off The Rails
