TSSA ballots members in Scotland

The TSSA is balloting members at ScotRail for strikes in a dispute about on-call working arrangements.

The issue stems largely from a “lack of any policy document related to on-call working”, but also includes “general unhappiness with the current Christmas and New Year arrangements”, according to the TSSA.

Long-standing union grievances about the nature of on-call duties were supposed to be have been discussed via a joint working group, as part of the 2021-22 pay award, the union added.

TSSA said that “over a year” since the agreement, “no meetings have taken place despite repeated requests from the union”. It accused ScotRail of “dragging its heels at every juncture on the matter” and of “acting in bad faith”.

In the event of a ‘yes’ vote, TSSA members would refuse all out of hours ‘on-call duties’.

These include conductor team managers, driver team managers, on-train team managers and station team managers at stations across Scotland. The ballot closes on December 12.

“Should our members decide to withdraw their on-call duties, this would lead to a scramble to cover gaps in out-of-hours on-call rosters during the Christmas period,” said TSSA Organiser, Gary Kelly.

“It would leave ScotRail facing difficulties in the event of any incident or severe weather. The ball is now very much in ScotRail’s court.”