RMT has produced a booklet providing a guide for reps on new legislation concerning immigration checks at work. The booklet is attached as a PDF and the text is reproduced below ...

NATIONAL UNION OF RAIL, MARITIME AND TRANSPORT WORKERS
IMMIGRATION CHECKS AT WORK: A reps guide

Dear Colleague,

It has come to our attention that some managers are issuing notices that they require medical certificates from day one of sickness absence over the Christmas and New Year period. RMT believes that they have no right to do this and we will be taking this up with LUL management.

By law, you have the right to self-certify your sickness absence during the first seven days. Under certain circumstances, LUL management can insist that you provide a medical certificate from day one of your absence.

If you are a member of reserve station staff, you get your advance duties, then go on annual leave, then come back from your leave and turn up to work to find out that those duties have been changed, you will know how difficult and frustrating this situation can be.

RMT has obtained the following agreement from LUL management to prevent our members being messed around in this way:

• Local management should, wherever possible, not change the notified advance duties of reserve staff who are on annual leave.

Below is a question-and-answer briefing produced by LUL management to explain pay rates for working on New Year's Eve.

In a few cases, managers have stopped staff's sick pay because Occupational Health says that they are fit to return to work after sickness but their own GP says to stay off work for a while longer.

Employers are not allowed to do this. Case law outlined below explains the legal situation.

Spent more than 2 hours working on a platform and wondered why you had to put up with the noise,heat and dust for so long?

The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives employees the right to time off if something “unexpected” happens to their arrangements for caring for a dependant. But your employer may suggest that the word "unexpected" means that if you had more than a couple of days' notice, then you do not have the right to the time off. But a recent legal case has established that “unexpected” can include a situation in which the employee had two weeks’ notice of a change to their childcare arrangements.

If you have a child under the age of 6, a disabled child under the age of 18, or care for a dependant adult (eg. a sick or disabled partner, parent or adult son/daughter), then you have the legal right to apply for ‘flexible working’ ie. changes to your hours or location of work that fit in better with your caring responsibilities.

Here is a concise guide to your rights for SRT staff. You can find the full official policy here.

As the SRT is new, it is especially important for staff to know your rights and to assert them, as management are trying to ‘push the boundaries’ and use you in ways that they should not. If they are able to get away this, then you as an SRT staff member will have an even heavier workload and more difficult working life. In addition, management will use you to help them de-staff our stations, to the detriment of the whole workforce.

So – stand up for your rights. If management breach any of these rights, contact RMT immediately.

You may be aware that earlier this year, RMT won for weekend part-timers the right to take your annual leave as a full weekend rather than as the Sunday of one weekend followed by the Saturday of the next.