Under pressure of RMT's loud protests, London Underground management conceded that employing managers have the discretion to dock neither pay nor leave from staff who genuinely could not attend work due to the snow at the start of February. Both management and the Mayor told London's newspapers that staff would not be penalised due to the weather conditions.

But it seems that now the headlines have faded, some managers think that they can punish you for a situation beyond your control and have made staff take either unpaid leave or annual leave for the snow days. If this has happened to you, submit a grievance.

Your local RMT rep can help you to draft your grievance, which should be addressed to your employing manager ie. GSM or RCM. You could use the following as a model.

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GRIEVANCE: DEDUCTION OF PAY/LEAVE [delete as appropriate] BECAUSE OF SNOW

I am submitting this grievance because I have been made to take annual leave / unpaid special leave [delete as appropriate] for the day[s] on which I was unable to attend work due to the heavy snow. I believe that this is unjust and that the day[s] should be considered paid special leave.

[Give details of where you live, your usual journey to work, your efforts to attend work, and why it proved impossible.]

As you can see, this was not a day's holiday for me, and I was genuinely unable to attend work.

I remind you that TfL cancelled the buses, and that the Mayor advised people not to travel to work. A TfL spokesperson said that: "If staff are not able to provide a good reason for why they were not at work, they will be expected to take annual or unpaid leave for that day." (London Lite, 9 February) Since I have been able to provide a good reason, I should therefore not be expected to take annual or unpaid leave. Further, Boris Johnson said that he had "absolutely no intention of penalising anyone who failed to get to work due to last week's exceptional weather." (Evening Standard, 9 February)

Please confirm that I will be awarded paid special leave for the day[s] concerned, and that my deducted pay/leave [delete as appropriate] will be restored to me.