Rail union holds new strike ballot over changes to CCTV operations

PASSENGERS on Scotland’s railways are being put at risk because of dwindling numbers of CCTV operators, unions have warned.

Transport staff union TSSA says it is now considering strike action over the issue and will ballot staff this week.

Last year union leaders suspended a strike action threat after plans to axe one third of 78 CCTV monitoring jobs were withdrawn.

But the union now says it is concerned that Scotrail still managed to achieve 17 voluntary redundancies from the CCTV section without being replaced.

It is also worried that moving some staff to night shifts without further recruitment will result in a “real risk to passenger safety”.

Scotrail insists changes it is making, including new investment in equipment, will improve the service.

TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said: “Six months ago Scotrail proposed cutting nearly a third of its CCTV department, creating an unacceptable level of risk for Scotland’s rail users.

“Our members rightly fought back against that, but we had to ballot our members for strike to bring them to the negotiating table. Now we’re back to square one as the company doesn’t appear to care that passenger safety will be compromised.

“The last six months have seen Scotrail attempt to force a nightshift on an already overstretched workforce – without any extra staffing at all. That means each shift will have fewer people carrying out the same amount of work.

“That is a real risk to passenger safety – fewer staff on shift means a greater risk that a live incident gets missed.

“Whether it’s a mugging on an unstaffed station, a suspect package at Glasgow Central or a vulnerable passenger – these incidents take place during the day. We need more staff on the cameras then, not less.”

The staff monitor CCTV screens from thousands of cameras guarding all aspects of rail safety across Scotland’s stations and railway tracks from bases in Paisley and Dunfermline.

A TSSA source said: “The voluntary severance deals have hit the CCTV control staff and the subsequent changes of rosters are causing sufficient headaches that more staff may quit.

“The continuous change at Scotrail is quite a problem.

“We are very clear that voluntary severance is backdoor redundancy. Scotrail cannot make compulsory redundancies under its franchise agreement but it still makes money by cutting staff costs.

“Voluntary severance is a way of getting round that and Scotrail has used it several times since 2015.

“We could not prevent staff taking VS although I wish we could.

“However, we had the promise that everyone who wanted a job in CCTV would have one and the promise of negotiations over everything else so we engaged in that.

“But we are not making progress and Scotrail is still trying to force through the nightshift. We will therefore be balloting staff this week.”

Concerns about cuts to the CCTV staffing that surfaced in September were described as “crazy” in the wake of the previous month’s terror threat from militant group Al-qaeda, which urged supporters to derail train carriages.

In an article in the group’s magazine Inspire, the terrorist organisation said securing thousands of miles of track in the UK was “practically impossible” and attacks would cause “great damage and destruction”.

Staff of both the RMT and TSSA unions voted for strike action over the reduction in CCTV operators by Scotrail, which is run by Netherlands-based Abellio.

A Scotrail Alliance spokesman said: “We are upgrading our Paisley centre and expanding our teams in Springburn control centre to provide better information to customers at times of disruption.

“We have invested more than £800,000 in new CCTV technology and training our people.

“We have also introduced 300 new body cameras for our employees in customer facing roles to improve security.”

Each shift will have fewer people doing the work