Rail workers stage 24-hour walkout over promotion row

Published on Tuesday 14 February 2012 11:59

RAIL signalling workers are holding a 24-hour strike in a dispute over career progression.

Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union based at the West of Scotland centre walked out at 5.59am today, until 5.58am tomorrow.

The latest industrial action follows a 72-hour strike from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day. At the time, further action was suspended to allow for talks with management, which later broke down.

The union claims Network Rail is refusing to adhere to a long-standing local arrangement where, when a resident post becomes vacant, it goes to a senior staff member.

Another day of action has been planned for 2 March.

RMT said the new round of walk-outs came after “a total failure by the management to make any progress in respect of settling the dispute over career progression”.

Bob Crow, general-secretary of the union, said: “RMT has tried to reach a negotiated settlement to this unilateral ripping-up of a local arrangement but unfortunately the management have refused to see sense and have failed to engage with us seriously since the strike action over Christmas.”

ScotRail said five services in and out of Glasgow Central were running less frequently while the Cathcart Circle service was withdrawn.

Some services are also expected to be affected tomorrow morning, with 10 cancellations already listed.

A company statement said: “As a result of planned industrial action by Network Rail staff at its West of Scotland Signalling Centre, services on six routes to and from Glasgow Central will be less frequent - or withdrawn - on Tuesday February 14.

“A few early-morning services will also be affected on Wednesday.”

“This action is beyond the control of ScotRail and we apologise for any inconvenience.”

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Tartancult

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 05:47 PM

Scotland edges ever close to the abyss...

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Simonsaid

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 04:56 PM

RMT said the arrangements had allowed experienced staff to be "slotted" into a post when it became vacant. ======================================================== That would be where an experienced ticket inspector is slotted into a signalling control centre position requiring totally different skills. Bob Crow, general-secretary of the union, said the management have refused to see sense That is Union speak for they did not do what the Union demanded ======================================================== I have seen this type of thing before when I worked abroad. There would be many different trades and disciplines involved in building, commissioning and operating new plants – Operations staff were usually the first to be replaced by locals as it is quicker to train someone to operate a plant than it is to train a tradesman to maintain it. However, when a company operations person, with years of experience, was due to be phased- out and a job happened to be vacant as maintenance manager he would be moved into that. Now if he was wise he would stick to shuffling the paperwork around, whilst relying on those under him to do their job. ======================================================== I remember one case when a technician in charge of a gas turbine driven pumping station called one of these so-called managers to request that he stop the Gas Turbine driven pumps whist sand-blasting the steelwork was in progress as any sand getting into the engines could cause damage – he was told no. Three hours later two of the engines shutdown with severe internal problems and had to be sent back to the USA and two replacements sent from the States. at a cost of half a million dollars not counting the loss of production whilst the pumps were out of action.

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Alan Craigie

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 at 03:37 PM

So managers want to promote the best man for the job not the one that's been there the longest. Sounds reasonable. No wonder the railways are prohibitively expensive if managers aren't allowed to manage. What a sorry state.

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