Archaic rail rules mean it takes nine workers to ‘change a plug socket’ | RMT accused of calling strike to defend host of outdated practices

9 comments

  1. Rail unions have been accused of bringing the country to a standstill over archaic working practices that mean menial tasks such as “changing a plug socket” would take a team of nine workers.

    Industry sources on Tuesday shed new light on inefficiencies that are costing taxpayers billions of pounds.

    Demanding “walking time allowance” of 12 minutes for a one minute walk, specialist teams refusing to share vans, and engineers being unable to stray 500 yards from their dedicated patch are among the working practices that union chiefs are determined to defend, they claimed.

    “We can’t roster individuals,” said one industry source. “Let’s imagine you want to change a single socket to a double in your kitchen. “Potentially you’d need an electrician, a tiler and a plumber as your dishwasher waste pipe will need adjusting too.

    Alternatively, you could find a competent odd-jobber to do the whole task.

    “In Network Rail we can’t roster individuals, only teams and we can’t multi-skill those teams so we’d need to send a team of three electricians, three tilers and three plumbers – nine people to do a job one person could do.

    “Eighty per cent of the most common infrastructure faults could be fixed by small, multi-skilled teams.”

    Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, on Tuesday said that “poor productivity” had become deeply entrenched throughout the railways.

    “We are such an archaic industry in many of our working practices we can offer a good pay rise to our colleagues and good value for the taxpayer if only we can get sensible reforms in.”

    Mick Lynch, Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) general secretary, has insisted he was not against change. “What we’ve got here is an unreasonable agenda of mass pay cuts, match job cuts and slashing of our terms and conditions,” he said on Monday.

    But industry sources suggest otherwise. Another example they cite relates to the renovation of Birmingham New Street station, which began in 2010.

    Prior to the rebuild, train crews were based in a “dark and dank” room in the bowels of the 19th Century station.

    Once the £750m station rebuild got underway in 2010, crews were moved to the Guildhall in central Birmingham, a short walk away.

    An industry source claimed: “The trade union insisted we renegotiate the walking time allowance, the paid time they get from leaving the train to arriving in the messroom – time that isn’t part of their breaktime.”

    “[But] the trade union used a driver with a gammy leg and timed them from the end of the longest train, at the farthest extent of the station, to reach the Guildhall,” the source adds.

    “And even then not via the rear exit to the Guildhall which spills out directly across the road from the station, but all the way around the building to use the main entrance where the lifts were located.

    “The new walking time allowance was set at 12 minutes.”

    The walk takes one minute, according to Google Maps. Meanwhile, maintenance teams are not allowed to cross boundary lines.

    This means, for example, that if there is a fault on the Kings Cross to Potters Bar line and no staff available to fix it, a member from the nearby Euston to Watford line cannot step into the breach.

    “[If] the Euston team who had no call outs on their patch could have popped across the 500 yards to Kings Cross to sort the issue in short order,” the source said.

    The list goes on, they add. “Our specialist teams won’t share vans or equipment so we can’t send one van with a mixed team in, we have to send two or more to each job. The specialist teams also won’t collaborate even to the point of not helping to unload another team’s kit.”

    Switching desks at short notice, commonplace in many 21st Century offices, is also off-limits.

    “In a major signalling centre we have up to half a dozen stations – desks with computers and screens on. If at the eleventh hour someone doesn’t turn up or falls sick we can ask a perfectly competent and qualified colleague to switch desks as they haven’t had adequate notice.”

    Hours before the strike began on Tuesday, rail chiefs vowed to “dump outdated working practices” and cut 1,800 staff. In a letter to trade unions, Network Rail said it would press ahead with plans to cut jobs and overhaul working hours in an effort to slash costs.

    Bosses at Network Rail said that despite spending “many hours” in discussions with union leaders, talks had not progressed.

    Tim Shoveller, who has led Network Rail’s discussions with union leaders to date, added: “Last night [Monday] Network Rail passed a letter to the RMT asking them to attend the start of formal consultation talks on Jul 1 on the introduction of modern working practices in our maintenance organisation.

    “The changes will mean dumping outdated working practices and introducing new technology, both of which will lead to a more effective and safer maintenance organisation.”

  6. “a competent odd jobber” yeah we had some of those during railtrack days. I seem to remember them being responsible for a train calling at platforms 3 4 5 and 7 at potters bar.

    Also mixed teams ? We don’t work mixed teams because we have completely different jobs you fucking dunce. You wouldn’t let a labourer rewire a super computer and at the same time you wouldn’t hire a sparky to dig a trench.

    Why don’t we share vans ? Probably because we are separate teams doing separate jobs usually in separate places. Hell if I’m on shift as s&t I could be 40 miles from the depot doing signal maintenance while the pway could be 20 miles in the other direction digging wet beds. How’s sharing vans going to work ?

    Why don’t we unload each others tools ? Generally it’s a load of bollox and we do help eachother out but on the odd occasion we will ask people not to touch certain things if they don’t know how to handle it for safety reasons or because something is fragile.

    Why don’t we cover other sections ? We do to some degree. But network rail in all its wisdom implemented a culture where if you are off section you require a local person with local knowledge to lay protection for you as if you don’t know where your protection needs to be placed it can lead to fuck ups.
    Also not every section will have the same equipment. And you cannot work on things you do not hold the ticket for that’s a sackable offence if you fuck it up.

    Why do we have set numbers of people for jobs ?
    Certain jobs it’s a safety requirement. Can’t work on electricity alone above a certain voltage.
    Can’t climb a signal without the right number of men that number being 3 one to rescue you if you fall and injure yourself and one to call the signaller etc to make sure it’s safe to do so. They made these rules.
    There’s also technical reasons. Certain jobs take more folk. Either due to difficulty. Needs for testing purposes or simply shit is heavy as fuck.

    Why are you given walking time ? Well sometimes your job might only be 3 yards away but if there isn’t a safe path 6 ft 6 away from the nearest running rail and you don’t have the line blocked you can’t get there. Caught walking the line without a blockage ? Sacked.

    Fuck me will the utter shite ever end ? Like this is just out right bullshit attacks at this point.

  8. This nonsense really does need challenging more widely.

    >But industry sources suggest otherwise. Another example they cite relates to the renovation of Birmingham New Street station, which began in 2010.
    >
    >Prior to the rebuild, train crews were based in a “dark and dank” room in the bowels of the 19th Century station.
    >
    >Once the £750m station rebuild got underway in 2010, crews were moved to the Guildhall in central Birmingham, a short walk away.
    >
    >An industry source claimed: “The trade union insisted we renegotiate the walking time allowance, the paid time they get from leaving the train to arriving in the messroom – time that isn’t part of their breaktime.”

    Walking time isn’t a “perk”. It’s a tool used by train planners to ensure that the diagrams (which contain, in simple terms, the day’s work content for an individual driver or guard) that they produce are robust, to avoid trains departing late because not enough time has been allowed for the traincrew to get back from their break.

    >“[But] the trade union used a driver with a gammy leg and timed them from the end of the longest train, at the farthest extent of the station, to reach the Guildhall,” the source adds.

    On the basis that it’s a tool used to ensure that diagrams are robust, it makes sense to measure it from the farthest point using (within reason) the slowest driver – not least because traincrew are usually walking to or from the extreme ends of trains.

    >“And even then not via the rear exit to the Guildhall which spills out directly across the road from the station, but all the way around the building to use the main entrance where the lifts were located.

    Is the back entrance always open?

    >“The new walking time allowance was set at 12 minutes.”
    >
    >The walk takes one minute, according to Google Maps.

    Google Maps certainly doesn’t tell you how long it takes to get to and from individual platforms. Walking time at my company, at least, starts from the arrival time of the train. By the time you’ve secured the train, taken your key out, grabbed your coat and bag and managed to sneak into the constant flow of passengers leaving the train (we don’t have a separate external cab door on most of our trains), you’re already a minute or two down, and you still have to walk along the platform and up the crowded stairs to get to the main concourse.

    There’s also the time needed to actually get to the messroom facilities in the Guildhall building too. One messroom that I occasionally use is several floors up in an office block, which accounts for a few minutes especially if you have to wait for the lift.

    >Meanwhile, maintenance teams are not allowed to cross boundary lines.
    >
    >This means, for example, that if there is a fault on the Kings Cross to Potters Bar line and no staff available to fix it, a member from the nearby Euston to Watford line cannot step into the breach.

    Not my area of expertise, but do you really want maintenance teams working on, e.g., complex signalling installations that they’re not familiar with?

    >Switching desks at short notice, commonplace in many 21st Century offices, is also off-limits.
    >
    >“In a major signalling centre we have up to half a dozen stations – desks with computers and screens on. If at the eleventh hour someone doesn’t turn up or falls sick we *can* ask a perfectly competent and qualified colleague to switch desks as they haven’t had adequate notice.”

    We can or we can’t? I assume that they meant “can’t”. I’m sure it’s wrong, though. The problem is more likely to be that, if they did so, they’ve then got to cover that workstation instead, so it doesn’t really solve anything. It’s not like just moving to a different desk in an office because you’re fed up of being under the air-con vent either. Each workstation in a signalling centre controls a fixed area, and signallers have to be signed off as competent to work each one individually because they each have their own peculiarities, special instructions etc..

Leave a Reply