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Know Your Rights

Guides to your rights at work

'RMT Platform' special issue, 22 June: Can Rostered Staff be Made to Work at Another Station?

As London Underground management move staff around like pawns to cover for their own deliberate under-staffing of stations, our new issue of 'RMT Platform' tells you exactly what your rights are, and how to stop management abusing them.

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download. Pleast distribute widely.

Know Your Rights: Parental Leave

You have the legal right to parental leave - that is, time off work to spend with your young or disabled children. This leave is unpaid and has to be taken in week-long blocks. Your rights are outlined in detail here.

Your Right To 12 Hours Rest

You are entitled to 12 hours rest between duties. This is specified in the Framework Agreement and can only be reduced to 10 hours "exceptionally" and 8 hours "in an emergency". These exceptions and emergencies concern service requirement. There is no exemption according to whether your duties are safety-critical or not.

London Underground's Grievance Procedure

If management mistreat you, you have the right to complain! Here is LUL's Grievance Procedure - the text is below, and it is attached as a PDF file. Make sure you get the help and support of a union rep throughout the process.

Know Your Rights: Reserve Station Staff

  • Duties, notice, changes
  • Your working hours
  • Where you work
  • Facilities

Know Your Rights: Sickness and Attendance

In RMT’s view, being ill or injured should not be a disciplinary issue at all. So long as you can prove through a certificate that you are genuinely ill, you should not be punished. It is normal for human beings to be ill sometimes – we are not robots!
However, LUL disagrees, and has an unfair and punitive disciplinary policy for absence through sickness.
This is not a comprehensive guide to LUL’s policy – the company’s own documents provide that – but a guide from your union to the rights that you have.

Know Your Rights: Rostered Staff Working at Other Stations

Just to be clear ... The Framework Agreement for Station Staff states:

The abuse of personal contact details

It seems to be a never ending complaint that LUL managers harass and invade the privacy of our members and cause alarm and distress to them and their next of kin by making unsolicited calls whilst our members are off sick – even to the point of abusing the emergency contact details that are provided.

Your Right to be Accopmanied to Disciplinary and Grievance Hearings

Section 10.1(a) of the Employment Relations Act 1999 states:

Right to be accompanied

(1) This section applies where a worker—

(a) is required or invited by his employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing, and

(b) reasonably requests to be accompanied at the hearing.

FREE: Legal advice on criminal matters.

Free legal advice on criminal matters from Thompson's Solicitors

please find the attached poster for display in all staff areas.

Case Conference: Employing Managers Only

On RMT's request, management confirmed at the Stations & Revenue Council meeting on 26 November that only an employing manager can conduct a case conference with a member of staff. This is because a case conference can make decisions regarding conditions of a member of staff's employment eg. reasonable adjustments, redeployment.

Fact-finding interviews. Representation denied.

Dear Colleagues,

I am hearing more and more reports of members being called to attend fact-finding interviews whilst being denied RMT representation.

I have recently been given a document which comes with a message from the General Secretary on one side, and a proforma on the other. I have copied the proforma into a word document and attached it below. As soon as I am able I shall attach a pdf document with this blog entry. Please find the attached word document, and use it whenever necessary.

Freedom of information

Have you ever wondered what information LU holds about you? Have you ever thought it might be incorrect?

Did you know that under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998 you are entitled to see and have your own copies of information that is about you or which refers to you;things like you references, job applications, notes kept during recruitment interviews, or sickness and attendance records?

Higher Grade Working agreement (HGW)

To all RMT members - Management have reneged on a long standing agreement whereby if you are stepped up to cover a job on HGW for any amount of time you would be paid the whole shift at the higher rate. Management are now stating that at least 2 hours or more need to be worked before the whole shift is paid at the higher rate.

Discrimination Legislation: An Introduction

This text is from trade union solicitors OH Parsons, and is the introductory section to its specific guides to the law on discrimination in employment. It sets out the basics of how this legislation works - and its limits! The specific guides will be posted on this website in due course.

Meeting with Management? Your Right to an Alternative Date

Sometimes, you may be unable to attend a disciplinary/grievance/etc meeting at the time/date scheduled by management. Because of this, an alternative date/time can be arranged. It seems to be standard practice on London Underground that management set the alternative, which could cause you problems if neither date is suitable.

Your rights: Workers’ access to information about themselves

This is an extract from The Employment Practices Code: Data Protection, which you can read on the Information Commissioner's Office's website,

Appointments with Members on Rep's Rest Day

If management schedule a meeting with a member of staff at which s/he is entitled to be represented -
eg. LDI, case conference, grievance hearing, appeal, flexible working discussion, etc - on the local union rep's rest day, then either
(a) the rep will attend and be allocated an alternative rest day; or
(b) the meeting should be rescheduled to a day on which the rep is at work.

RMT Wins Legal Cases for Station Staff

These extracts from the section of the General Secretary's report to RMT's 2009 AGM concerning the union's legal services cover some London Underground station staff cases ...

Women in Danger from Serial Rapist: Your Right to Safe Transport Home

There has been a series of rapes of women in the Walthamstow area. On some local station groups, RMT reps have successfully argued that management should provide door-to-door special taxis for women staff to get home.

The union is currently working on extending this to workers in all grades who live or work in this area.

Your RMT Stations and Revenue Council representatives: click on their names or photos to send them an email.

Janine Booth 07748-760261
Janine Booth

Neil Cochrane (staff side chair) 07739-869867
Neil Cochrane

Mick Crossey 07834-117509
Mick Crossey

John Kelly 07740-065367
John Kelly

Malcolm Taylor (staff side secretary) 07748-933241
Malcolm Taylor

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