Collective grievance from King's Cross

Our fundamental objections are to:
Loss of 12 f/t CSA posts, two p/t CSA posts, two CCA posts and seven rostered SAMF posts, with a consequent reduction of reserve SAMF posts.

General objection: the attack on jobs is based on a lie, particularly the attack on CSA jobs. The justification for the cull of SAMF jobs is changed customer purchasing behaviours, (principally Oyster). However, LU has engineered the situation with the £5 minimum top-up requirement.

Insofar as there has been a reduction in window transactions due to Oyster, the job cuts are not commensurate. Furthermore, if this were really about ticket office transactions there wouldn’t be the accompanying attack on CSA jobs.

General objection: We object to the management telling union reps that they are not to engage in any negotiations in regard to service or staffing levels and that we are to confine our consultation to providing positive and constructive feedback to management. This implies the role of the union rep is to represent the interest of LUL management to our members, rather than to represent the interests of our members to LUL management with the aim of furthering our members’ not management’s interests.

Objection: The KX North Ticket Hall (NTH) has only recently opened. All of the passenger numbers and staffing requirements have just been set. There has been absolutely no reduction in passenger journeys or window transactions that would justify such a massive assault on staffing levels: the effect of the proposed staffing cuts is to take us back to almost pre-NTH staffing levels, despite the station nearly doubling in size.

Reduction in SAMFs:
We believe that by so reducing the ticket office hours that passengers will suffer by not being able to resolve Oyster issues quickly with the help of specially trained ticket office staff when they will be in the most hurry,
We believe that the increased frustration of inconvenienced passengers will be echoed by the increased frustration of CSAs and gate-line SAMFs who are unable to help passengers, and that this increased frustration will inevitably lead to more verbal and physical assaults on staff .
And what does London Underground tell its staff about assaults – it isn’t the person the passengers are angry with, but the uniform. LUL is giving passengers more reasons to be angry with the uniform!
Along the same lines figures show the SAMFs are more likely to be assaulted when on the gate-line as more SAMFs will be working on the gate-line we anticipate an increase in work-related violence.
It is an absurdity to have a SAMF on the gate-line unable to rectify Oyster and ticketing issues because the ticket office is closed or because they’re locked down on the gateline doing CSA work. We object to the use of the ticket office staff to facilitate the cutting of a full-time CSA – this is a policy of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It is absurd to have a SAMF on the gate-line when s/he could be in the ticket office selling tickets, collecting revenue from excess fares and providing valuable customer service.
Work/life balance is a joke as a result of the proposed SAMF staffing levels: for example Line 5 Friday, (CH32) finishes 21:30, resumes next morning (CB35) at 10:00. It is not enough to say it meets the Framework requirements: adequate staffing levels mean proper rest & recovery is possible, (within the constraints of shiftwork). The situation is the same on Line 6, finish Friday 19:00, return Saturday 07:70, and Line 24, Friday finish 21:30, return Saturday 10:00, and Line 29, finish Friday 16:00 return Saturday 04:45.

The proposed staffing levels have turned Fridays into a Dead Zone: there are only four (4no) Friday rest days in 30 weeks. This is a joke, whether your needs are family, social or religious – a fair number of LUL staff celebrate their principle religious day on a Friday. It hardly needs saying that it is a popular social day too. Given that it is followed by only seven (7no) Saturday rest days, this is not a happy work/life balance.

There is a 13 week block on the proposed SAMF roster when there are NO Friday rest days – weeks 16-29 inclusive. There is made worse by seven of the weeks on the proposed SAMF roster when there are NO Friday/Saturday rest days – weeks 20-26 inclusive.

At present two offices open for the dead early on a Saturday and on a Sunday: therefore two multifunction staff pick up a dead early. It is now proposed to have only one office open at S-o-T, but five (5no) SAMF’s will book on. Why? Because it is proposed that CSA jobs are cut. This is despite the fact that the station can be very busy on a Sunday morning, with large number of Oyster-less passengers, who are usually the worse-for-wear having been in the clubs all night, needing tickets. CSA’ already have their hands full because of the changed dispatch procedures for the Piccadilly line on a Sunday morning.

The proposed SAMF rosters increases the amount of cross-office working. This is not a good working practice.
The POM time as proposed is insufficient. Windows would have to close to reduce cash. There is too much SSI marked on the schematic. This time is never unused.
Duty #2 has no cash up time. It says Close 23:15, then SSI. The Western is the worst ticket office to close owing to Eurostar-related problems.

CCAs Having dedicated CCA staff had been a real customer service plus. It ensures the leaflet racks are always full, and means customers in need are usually spotted quickly. The CCAs are often on hand to spot blind/partially sighted people entering the station, and can arrange assistance. With the RNIB in close proximity, this is an important matter. Abolishing the position is extremely short-sighted, (no pun intended) and makes no business sense.

Withdrawal of the Night Turn CSA. Combined with the proposed cull of Care Bears this is a crazy move. The sheer number of notices, drivers’ white-boards, signage, (esp during ongoing redevelopment), leaflets, (Care Bears aren’t available from 23:00), one-way systems, etc, etc, that have to be dealt with means the night CSA is very busy. There is often a massive amount of contractors’ work that has to be signed off by the Station Supervisors in a relatively short period of time towards the end of engineering hours: at times both SSs are out of the office. Rather than have the office closed, the night CSA can advise contractors of developments. It also means the phone doesn’t go unanswered if e/t staff en route have problems with staff taxis, etc.

Increase in SATs: The vast majority of SAT’s turns have been increased in duration and the remainder are the same as before. There is no reduction in SATs times. Staff side would agree that SATs make the station and the PTI safer, but this is impossible to do properly with the proposed staff cuts.

Roster: Crazy collection of duties and start times: no work/life balance. Lines 4/5 are a mess of dead earlies and inside earlies. This is a recipe for lateness or turning up too early.
7 day runs: although the norm on the Combine, it has been a feature of KX rosters that the 7 day runs have been worked out of the roster, even at the expense of losing a few long weekends.

This has always been a staff request, and has been seen as a reasonable trade-off. Having been through all this aggro at the back end of last year, we are disappointed to see that a consequence of the proposed staff cuts is a return to seven day runs. The seven day run on lines 6/7 jumps between 17:15, 15:00, 14:30 and 12:30 starts, (see previous complaint).

This a common feature of the proposed CSA roster. It is a mess, drawn up with no thought for the staff who have to work it.
The station is difficult to run at the current staffing levels. These have not long been fixed, and were not generous. It is a regular feature of the station that POM turns have to be pulled out and ticket office windows have to be closed just to keep the station open.

Even when operating at maximum staffing levels the ticket halls are very busy with long queues. When we take out POM turns this inevitably lengthens POM queues as the machines fail. This in turn increases pressure at the windows and the gatelines, leading to stress, and conflict: sometimes this leads to verbal abuse, and occasionally assaults.