Southern deal
ASLEF drivers agree a deal with Southern to end strike action, but RMT guards fight on against driver-only operation.
SOUTHERN Railway drivers in the ASLEF union have voted by 4:1 to accept a deal ending their longrunning dispute over changes to working arrangements.
The agreement will entail a small increase in Driver Only Operation (DOO) in exceptional circumstances. In return, drivers will receive a 28.5% pay rise by 2020.
Meanwhile, guards in the RMT union have been on strike again in protest against DOO. In the biggest industrial action on the railway since privatisation, there were 48-hour strikes on November 8/9 on South Western Railway, Greater Anglia, Southern and Gatwick Express, and 24-hour strikes on November 8 on Merseyrail and Northern. The action by guards was timed to coincide with the result of the ballot among drivers on Southern.
Hardest hit was SWR, where guards were striking for the first time. More than one in three services were unable to run, and hundreds of trains were cancelled each day, affecting tens of thousands of passengers.
On Southern, where the RMT held its 37th and 38th strike days since April 2016, most passengers barely noticed. Southern said all but a handful of services ran as normal.
ASLEF suggested that its 1,000 members on Southern were “battle weary”. Twice in the last year the drivers had rejected the advice of their own union and voted against a recommended deal. This time a larger 87% of members took part in the ballot, with 79% of them choosing to accept a revised agreement.
General Secretary Mick Whelan said: “This has taken many months of long and hard negotiations. It is less than we would have liked. It is a compromise. But it is a resolution which we believe works for the staff and the company.”
From January, there will be a second member of staff on all the disputed services through Surrey, Sussex and Hampshire, except in some specific exceptional circumstances. These include when an On Board Supervisor (OBS) is suddenly taken ill, or when an earlier train is delayed, making it impossible for the OBS to join the next service. Then the train will continue with only a driver.
The arrangement is similar to the working practice imposed by Southern Railway last January, and which the company says has driven up performance.
In a five-year pay deal backdated to 2016, drivers will receive a 28.5% pay increase, taking their basic salary from £49,000 to £63,000 for a 35-hour, four-day week. Drivers can expect to earn a further £10,000 in voluntary overtime.
Whelan said the deal was specific to Southern and Gatwick Express, and did not have implications for other train operators. He said the union remained opposed to the principle of Driver Only Operation.
Nick Brown, chief operating officer of Southern’s parent company Govia Thameslink Railway, said: “This dispute has been difficult for our passengers. We have more on-train staff on more trains than a year ago. Our trains will be planned to have a second person on board. Avoiding cancellations is key to us delivering a resilient and reliable service across the busiest and most congested part of the rail network.”
The RMT union attacked the deal
with ASLEF, accusing drivers of accepting a “massive bribe”. It had urged ASLEF drivers to defy their own union.
The RMT said it would make no difference to its own campaign of industrial action. General Secretary Mick Cash said: “This shoddy deal extends and institutionalises discrimination against disabled and older people. This deal deliberately sets out where there is no On Board Supervisor, the driver will knowingly have to leave such passengers stranded on trains and stations. That is frankly appalling.”
Rail Delivery Group Chief Executive Paul Plummer said: “This decision leaves the RMT leadership completely isolated. This agreement shows that unions can be part of a bright future for the railway, with more jobs in rail, including safety-trained staff on trains and at stations.”
The RMT union has claimed that serious breaches of safety rules put passengers at risk during the strike on SWR. It has written to the Rail Regulator, claiming that the operator failed in its duty to maintain public safety during the strike.
The union states that at Petersfield, a temporary guard said a train was ready to depart when it still had a red signal.
At Guildford, a temporary guard opened the doors on both sides of a train at the same time, although there was a platform on both sides.
And on a train from Waterloo to Windsor, a temporary guard activated the train doors while the train was still moving. The safety system picked up the mistake, and the train stopped short at a platform. The RMT says this would normally lead to a guard being sacked.
A spokesman for SWR said: “Our contingency staff, the vast majority of whom being experienced professional railway men and women, were fully trained for the duties they carried out. This training was verified both internally and by an independent safety advisor.”