Looking for a Transfer or Promotion, tough if LU get their way!

Staff have recently been informed by several managers that a freeze on nominations for SAMF positions was in place, but after the Functional reps raised this at the last Functional council meeting LU flatly refused that a freeze was in place and will confirmed this in a staff report scheduled to be published this week.

RMT continues to object to London Underground's refusal to fill vacancies. The company's insistence on leaving posts vacant means that many staff are blocked from moving to where they would prefer to work or even from attaining a promotion that they have worked hard and qualified for.

I have written the following letter to On The Move (names removed as this is a public website)

In October's OTM, Canary Wharf CSA *** wrote to complain about the Station Supervisor recruitment campaign which required applicants to hold a multi-functional licence. Many staff agree with ***'s views on this.

Shepherds Bush and Wood Lane station under went a review today, where your reps and LU management visit the station to assess everything from UTS gates, Staff levels, POMs, Lifts and Escalators to passenger foot fall which all carry an amount of points under the complexity review.

London Underground management is attacking jobs - and the most recent Stations & Revenue Council meeting revealed the extent of their attack. London Underground is:

• trying to scrap jobs "on the quiet"
• keeping posts vacant even where there are staff ready and willing to fill them
• leaving duties uncovered when staff are available to cover them

RMT has sent the following letter to London Underground Resourcing ...

RMT objects in the strongest terms to the advert in Traffic Circular 30 for Station Supervisors (TFL7543). We object to the fact that applications have been restricted to SAMFs and MF licence-holders who are eligible to nominate, and believe strongly that it should be open to London Underground staff of all grades.

LUL management is to launch a new Station Supervisor recruitment campaign, for staff willing to work at Greenford, Rickmansworth, Hammersmith, Paddington and Harrow-on-the-Hill groups.

Central Line West and Hammersmith & City line branches submitted the following resolution to the May 2009 meeting of the Regional Council, where it was passed.

This Council condemns the poor treatment of members of staff who after 2 years are still waiting for Revenue Control Training.

Below is a summary of the items discussed at the most recent Staions and Revenue functional council meeting.

Adverse weather

Following 2 referrals from Kings X and Harrow we discussed at great length the punitive measures used by LU, with the treatment of deducting 1 day’s pay or 1 day’s annual leave from staff who couldn’t get into work due to February’s bad weather.

Last year, RMT argued successfully that there should be no maximum limit on the number of locations that staff can nominate for transfer or promotion. Despite agreeing to this, LUL has been painfully slow in implementing it. However, SAP has now accepted this change, and management have finally announced a timetable, as follows:

Contrary to the comments of some managers, there is no movements freeze. If your local management are telling you that they can not fill any vacancy due to a 'movements freeze', please correct them, and please e-mail Janine straight away.

Unions and management have agreed the following three changes to the Framework Agreement for station staff. No doubt LUL will get round to publishing the new version of the Framework Agreement at some point, but in the meantime please bear in the mind that this rules now apply.

All three reflect improvements in station and revenue staff's rights won by RMT over the last year or so.

Several Items were discussed with some brought to a close and others ongoing. Outlined below are the topics talked about and the actions which were agreed to be carried out.

Items from the last meeting

Tell us about it.

Your union, RMT, is determined to speak up for you and put an end to the unfairness that is rampant in London Underground’s promotion system. We believe that, especially since the company privatised the recruitment and promotion set-up, our members have been systematically denied opportunities to further your careers.

London Underground seems to have developed a habit of sending staff to jobs that don't actually exist. There are groups of staff, such as CSAs at Rickmansworth, who were sent out of the training school to 'over establishment' posts. And then there are individuals, several of whom have been offered moves that they had nominated and signed acceptance for, only to be told that there is some kind of hitch and they can not have the job after all.

Currently, you are entitled to nominate 5 locations that you would like to transfer to, and 10 locations for a promotional move if you have achieved promotion to a new grade.

Why, RMT asked, have these limits? There may be more than 5 locations that you would rather work at than the one you work at now. And if you have achieved a promotion, why should you be restricted in the number of locations you can then move to work at in your new grade?

You may remember that earlier this year, we achieved an important victory for station staff by getting management to agree that a member of staff's rostered position should be held open for them until such time as they fully complete promotional training. Previously, management had been 'backfilling' these posts in breach of our agreements and peviously rostered staff were finding themselves 'busted' onto the reserve if they failed or dropped out.

An RMT survey is showing that London Underground’s promotion system is cheating staff out of your right to further your career. Our survey has only recently started, but questionnaires are coming in from station and revenue staff telling shocking tales of the treatment they received when they applied for promotion. Here are just some of the problems that members have encountered:

• no feedback after failure
• spurious or unfair reasons for failing
• being told you could reapply and go straight to the interview stage, then this being rescinded