RMT has revealed a shocking instruction from London Underground management - that visually-impaired passengers should not travel to Victoria station during the evening peak. The BBC has covered this story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15303638

[from the Stations and Revenue Safety Council]

Wheelchair ramps. LU are looking at trialling the laying of wheelchair ramps to assist wheelchair users to board/alight trains at approximately 20 stations across the system in readiness for the Olympics. At present we (safety council reps) are in the process of commenting on the relevant safety documentation that LU have produced.... We have been advised our functional council industrial colleagues that at present there is no agreement for LU staff to lay these ramps on our platforms/ trains. At present we are advising local safety representatives not to take part in discussing or participating in local trials relating to this activity and/or take part in any workplace risk assessments.

The latest meeting of the Equalities strand of the OSP (job cuts) review, on Tuesday 1 March, revealed that London Underground does not consider the needs of equalities groups when calculating its station staffing levels. RMT secured agreement from LU to consider revising these calculations to include equalities considerations.

But you don't need to take our word for it! The London Visual Impairment Forum (LVIF) has this to say about station staffing ...

"Staff on the underground trains are, on the whole, excellent ... If there are cuts to underground station and ticket office staff this could reduce the assistance offered to blind and partially sighted and other disabled passengers."

In April, RMT's London Transport Regional Council wrote to disabled people's organisations as part of our 'SOS: Staff Our Stations' campaign, alerting them to London Underground's planned job cuts and the difficulties that these will cause to disabled passengers. You can read our letter here. Several organisations representing disabled people have now sent the following letter to Mayor Boris Johnson, opposing the job cuts.

Dear Mr Johnson,

London Visual Impairment Forum (LVIF) Transport for All and Inclusion London are greatly concerned about the proposed staffing cuts for London Underground which, we believe, could seriously undermine the mobility of older and disabled people in the capital.

RMT has sent the following letter to management about TfL's 'Travel Support Cards' for passengers with hidden disablitiies ...

Following the Strategy & Development Forum on Wednesday, here are RMT's comments and questions about TfL's new 'Travel Support Card'. As we understand it, the aim of this is for passengers with hidden disabilities (eg. hearing impairment, learning difficulties, medical conditions eg. epilepsy) to carry a card which they show to staff to indicate what help they may need during their journey.

I have written to over 50 disabled people's organisations in and around London about London Underground's proposed job cuts. Read the letter below ...

I am writing on behalf of the RMT trade union to alert you to London Underground’s plan to cut 800 station staff posts and to severely reduce its ticket office opening hours. I believe that this move will seriously reduce the service that London Underground offers its passengers, and will have a particularly adverse effect on disabled passengers.

"Several groups representing those with disabilities suggested that having more staff available to provide help ... would improve current levels of accessibility significantly. ... Increased availability of staff would also reduce fear of crime by those with disabilities and the elderly, who frequently report feeling particularly vulnerable."
(London Assembly, The Future Tube Priorities Investigative Committee, January 2003, paragraph 11.4)

If you have a disability, then management are bound by law to consider reasonable adjustments to your working conditions to enable you to carry out your duties.

RMT has serious concerns that management are not abiding by this, and on at least one occasion have referred staff to redeployment without giving proper consideration to reasonable adjustments. We raised this issue at the Strategy & Development Forum today.

RMT raised the issue of medical restrictions on staff at the Strategy & Development Forum today. As the Stations & Revenue Health & Safety Council is due to discuss this issue at its next meeting on 12 November, we presented three key concerns that we would like to be included in that discussion:

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.

During the course of a week thousands upon thousands of people pass through our stations, each with a their own concerns, aspirations and limitations, and most of the time these have absolutely nothing to do with us. This newsletter contains an article about a lady travelling London in her wheelchair and the difficulties that she and CSA's encountered at Liverpool Street.

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 ...

Your RMT representatives at this meeting were Malcolm Taylor and Janine Booth. Issues discussed were as follows:

SAMF Gianpaolo Vuoto had worked for LUL for nine years when in November 2007, Piccadilly line management sacked him.

They dressed it up at his medical dismissal as 'reasonable', but nothing could be further from the truth - Gianpaolo had been able and was willing to continue being employed despite suffering from multiple sclerosis. All his workmates at Green Park backed him and testified to this in the tribunal.

CSA Karl Niles having given 19 years service to London Underground was sacked from his job as a CSA at Pimlico for suffering from Asthma and taking some time off to recover from his attacks.The total amount of time that Karl has had off is between 20 and 25 days yet he has fallen foul of LUL's ridiculous Attendance at Work procedure.