One of the SAMFs at Liverpool Street Station and a recent recruit to the RMT Union supplied me with some excellent criticism of the proposed job cuts and roster, he wrote:

"Today a DSM asked me what I thought of the new roster as I have spent some time trying to interpret the schematics to see if they are workable. So I thought I would keep you in the loop as to what was said.
Obviously I raised the fact that losing a person whether through "natural wastage" or not was unacceptable.
In my defence I used the average weekly figures from 2007 sales total of approx £300,000, when we had 17 on the roster to the current weekly sales total of approx £500,000 with only 15 on the roster due to the closure of the toms in the A office
66% more money has to be accounted for and much is from the POMs, plus we are having to "sort out" customers who are unable to purchase tickets at their local stations because of closures or due to lack of staff as vacancies are not being filled, also many of the customers in the queues require answers or printouts or resolved journeys which do not show up as a transaction thus don’t exist on performance managers’ computer screens.

So in bullet points here are the issues raised.

Roster

1. Week 6/7 has 8 dead early shifts in a row - unacceptable as will lead to fatigue and accounting mistakes.
2. The spread of Saturday rest days should be more even as week 3 - 11 only one RD on Saturday.
3. We are pleased that all weeks are 37.5 hours = changeovers are fairer.

Schematics
Monday- Friday.

1. No cover for Poms "esaf" duties between 12.55 and 19.30 however we do have cover at 23.00-24.30 by ba31 ( I would love to see the company’s evidence that the machines need servicing at 2300 but don’t just before the peak for example 15.00 -16-30.) I suggested a 15th man on the roster perhaps 12.00 -20.00.
2. Ba24 will be in the "c" office from 06.15- 07.45 "as instructed" clarification as to what this means is required as no "esaf" duties appear on the schematics for the "C" office which could mean and can only guess that some Supervisors may interpret this as gate line or sats or station walk etc. There should be a minimum of 30 mins of poms each day with an extra 15 mins on Tuesday to open the deposit safe and create the transportation sacks ready for collection.
3. Ba32 closes the window at 24.00 then works as instructed till 25.00hrs clarification as to duty required i.e. cover gate line / last trains.
4. Ba25 All other duties have 30 mins at end of duty to cash up/ transfer money except Ba25 only 15 mins in view that T&R have been investigating many clerks due to esaf errors with transferring at the end of a shift I think the 30 mins should be given to all.

Saturday

1. Only 1 hour 15 mins of Esaf duties only time for banking or poms not both also if banking at 05.00 I assume the supervisor or gate line staff are ok with being our witness?
2. Poms need cover.
3. bb25 Again all clerks have 30 mins cash up except this one.
4. I would suggest bb21 start at 0630 to do esaf duty the bb22 can do poms and bb21 the banking.
5. Because local managers believe it is busy at weekends we have always had a ticket office assist normally starting between 09.00 and 11.00. Obviously higher managers have overruled.
   Will we have a regular assist and can it be fitted on the roster?
   It sounds like that 15th man again may be 16 are required to cover Sunday as well......

Sunday

1. almost the same as at the moment
2. 06.30 start staff taxi will need to be checked
3. ticket office assist???
4. we also have a collection on a Sunday: clarification required that "as instructed" on bc22&bc23 will be POMs and banking oh sorry "ESAF" duties.

The DSM agreed with many of my points and I think he would love to keep the 15th man but I felt that he was powerless to make changes as senior managers are holding the strings.
I think maybe a work to rule for a while may shine up the current schematics inadequate.

I agree with you Gavin that compared to some stations we have come off lightly, if this change goes ahead more of our customers will have to search for station with ticket offices open, which means more work for Liverpool St. so we should have more staff not less."