On Friday (Sept 7th) we met with LU Directors at a special Company Council meeting to discuss the ongoing misuse of the “Fitness for work” Section 5.2 of the Attendance at Work procedure and other breaches of the procedure, including warnings for “patterns” of non-attendance and accidents on duty.
Numerous individual cases were highlighted as well as the systematic approach of sending individuals who are fully fit for duty, with no underlying medical problems or recent sickness, to Occupational Health and then forcing them to attend an unlimited series of meetings with managers under threat of termination of their employment. This is now so out of control that at some locations mangers are complaining that it is impossible to get Occupational Health appointments for people who need them as all available slots are taken by fully fit people who have been referred unnecessarily !
At the meeting management accepted that they could not defend the behaviours we complained of in the cases we raised which included interviewing people about family tragedies and incidents over a decade ago. They agreed to review the individual cases we have raised and to provide “urgent advice” and training to managers to ensure they are operating the procedure correctly.
But as we have seen many times before, there is often a large gap between what senior management say their intentions are and what actually happens on the ground! We told them that we wanted them to set out their response in writing so that we can report to our members and reps and then decide on our next steps. This issue is also part of our dispute on the Central line.
Management claim that sickness levels are too high and that they want to introduce a new attendance procedure. We have repeatedly said that, given the nature of the job, with shifts booking on and off around the clock, stressful working conditions and the level of traumatic incidents, attendance is actually good and any issues can be managed by using the current procedure properly. Trying to bully people to attend work when they are not well enough is both wrong and counterproductive.
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Cab Security
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We also met management last Thursday (Sept 6th) to discuss cab security. Ballot papers have now been sent out to ASLEF members to be returned by Sep 19th.
Management have still made no commitment to spend the money needed to make cabs secure or to do anything beyond replacing J door ring pulls with so called “ safe glass”. This can be easily removed and is no solution to the problem.
We need a big Yes vote to make management accept that they have to spend the money needed to provide a proper secure cab with emergency access. A flyer from your ASLEF H&S council reps is here.
Please make sure you have returned your ballot paper. If you have not received one, please contact ASLEF Head office on 0207 324 2400 immediately so that a
replacement can be issued.
Full reports on these and other issues will be given at your local ASLEF branch meeting. Please come along to make sure your voice is heard on the things that matter to you at work.