Malcolm Taylor, RMT Stations & Revenue Council rep, reports.

The idea of a ‘special events team’ was agreed as part of the 35-hour week, but this has now changed to the ‘special requirements team’ and the exact purpose of its role is becoming a bone of contention. Much speculation can be made as to how management expect to utilise this team, and when they try to get phrases such as ‘short term needs’ put into the Framework Agreement, alarm bells start ringing!

During the talks we tried to negotiate but management were hell-bent on dictating the conditions to us and were not prepared to either meet us half way or even listen to our concerns, so RMT and TSSA jointly stopped the meeting and sent the issue to Company Council for discussion. We as a union could not agree on terms from management that undermine working practices that this union has fought hard for.