At the Stations & Revenue Council on 18 June, RMT submitted plenty of demands for a better working life for staff. Management said No to most of them, but if you read carefully, you might spot a few small victories! Phrases that are highlighted like this link to more detailed reports, so click on them to read more!

Here is a summary:

• Pursuing our demand for more reserve staff to be employed, we forced management to admit that they don't employ enough station staff.
• We are still waiting for information from management about their plan to have CSAs collect fares on the gateline - but rest assured that we will not be accepting it!
• Paddington group's rest day roster survey is going ahead.
• The blue tabards at Kings Cross have been withdrawn.
• There is going to be a further meeting to discuss Station Supervisor live learning.
• LUL is providing 'work experience' for long-term unemployed people. We asked for expenses to be paid to people who have to pay childare fees in order to take part. Management said they would include this in their feedback to the Mayor's office.
• We also raised concerns about protection from false allegations for staff coaching non-employees.
• Management have admitted that there was a wide variety of payments made to staff who volunteered to work on Christmas Day last year. We have agreed that there should be one set of terms and conditions for the future - management want this to be a 'middle ground' of those paid in the past; we want it to be levelled up to the best for staff!
• Family-friendly rostering fell of the agenda of the last Strategy & Development meeting, so will be discussed at the next.
• The Framework Agreement for the Special Requirements Team has now been agreed.
• RMT objected to Resourcing sending staff to non-existent jobs and then trying to displace them against their will. We made some progress with individual cases, but management are digging in about their 'right' to send new recruits to a 'temporary' first location and then displace them elsewhere.
• We asked that ATOR courses for part-timers be organised to suit their working hours, for example weekend courses for weekend part-timers. Management admitted that this was a 'nice idea in theory', and that they would talk to Learning and Development and report back to us.
• Following repeated incidents of managers breaking the company's own rules, particuarly regarding discipline and attendance, we demanded a robust system to prevent it happening again. Management agreed a little - whether this will be good enough in practice remains to be seen.
• We asked that reserve staff who work over their hours in a 12-week period should be allowed to take the time off in lieu rather than be paid the overtime if they prefer. Despite this being a small ask, which could even save the company money, management still said no.
• Management denied that there was any plan to merge the revenue control functions across TfL.
• We complained about the lack of consultation over the implementation of Boris' booze ban, which led to our members being abused and assaulted on the night ir came into force. Management somewhat sheepishly agreed that in future, if the Mayor makes an announcement that affecs our members at work, they should call an ad hoc meeting to discuss it.
• Having read that several groups are operating a policy that any item of sickness, even a single day, should lead to probation being extended, we insisted that such policies are not acceptable. Management had to agree that their policy is that individuals should be judged on their own merits, so that harsh and restrictive practices like those we reported were not in line with policy. However, they refused to discuss guidelines for managers in dealing with probation.
• RMT demanded that the limits of 5 transfer and 10 promotional nominations should be lifted, and management agreed. So dust off those nomination forms!
• We asked for more release and facilities for level 1 union reps. Management initially said no to every proposal, but then agreed to include them in a review that management were planning anyway. We insisted that they confirm that reps can not be expected to do additional work on the day of their level 1 meeting eg. case conferences or LDIs.
• Management accepted TSSA's point that National Rail staff can only work in Tottenham Hale ticket office when LUL staff are present.
• TSSA proposed that additional AG1s should be employed, but management insisted that this issue shoud be raised at the Management Adminstration and Technical Staff (MATS) Council instead.
• RMT objected to the appearance on the Intranet's Station Supervisors' home page of a form for staff reporting sick. The form is totally inappropriate for Supervisors, as it is intrusive and asks for detailed personal information from staff. Management agreed to investigate this.
• We accused management of having abolished discretion in the way that they implement policies. Management relucantly agreed that their local managers can give paid special leave, and can give warnings for less than 26 weeks. 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.