ASLEF Executive Committee member Terry Wilkinson along with Trains Council and local reps met with London Underground directors this week after members on both lines passed motions in support of industrial action.

Central line.

Management have now withdrawn their threat to impose new rosters that had not been agreed with your reps. Proper consultation will now take place through the normal procedures.

Victoria line

A long list of issues were discussed and your reps highlighted repeated failures to stick to agreements. A number of individual cases that have not been properly dealt with were also raised. Management will give a detailed response on these issues when we meet again on March 21st.

5 rounder turns; Management said they do not intend to increase the proportion of 5 rounder turns on the roster. ASLEF made clear that any attempt to do so would lead to a dispute.

SSTO contracts. Management accepted that this should not have been raised at local level.

Attendance at Work procedure.

ASLEF showed how managers have been trying to circumvent the agreed procedures on accidents at work, deduction of pay, length of warnings and sickness reviews.

Service Control issues

We raised the three major incidents on the line where Service Control had left a lot to be desired. We pointed out that Service Control had refused to attend the Level 1 committee for them to address directly. Management agreed that they would have to attend the Level 1 and that they would also have a standalone meeting with Service Control and the Reps before this.

Grievances and Appeals

We pointed out these were taking far to long and that in one instance they had a case that went on for a year, They agreed to improve the time scales and provide data on them to the Level 1 committee.

Late running enforced overtime

Management produced the agreement from a couple of years ago where an approach to late running was agreed and said they would reissue it and ensure that it is worked to. We also raised about overtime being caused by stepping drivers back when they were already running late. Management said the only time this would be acceptable was if it was to accommodate another driver who was actually running later but they certainly wouldn’t expect a driver to be held back for a significant number of trains if looking at overtime.We pointed out that managers have no right to force drivers into overtime (other than in a genuine emergency)

We will be meeting senior management again on March 21st for a full response on the outstanding issues and will report to members after that meeting. There will also be a full report at the next branch meeting.