So said LUL management at June's Stations & Revenue Council meeting.

RMT accused the company of having abolished discretion in the way that they implement policies - always giving the maximum warning for non-attendance, never awarding paid special leave.

Management relucantly agreed that their local managers can give paid special leave, and can give warnings for less than 26 weeks, but that they felt that this should be in exceptional circumstances only. Unfortunately for management, that is not what their policy actually says, so RMT will continue to fight for our members to be treated fairly rather than as harshly as management feel they can get away with.

Management concluded by saying that "We have not changed our policies, but we are implementing them more rigorously". There is only one way for RMT to respond to this - by defending our members more rigorously.