Industrial Action by Underground Workers

Today, the RMT and TSSA unions combined to instigate a withdrawal of labour by Union members working for London Underground. Having seen the propaganda put forward by both the Unions and Management, I feel I need to put my own views across as to why I believe that this dispute is necessary.

The management, quite rightly claim that this dispute is about the 800 job losses in Ticket Offices, and that in fact, no staff will be made redundant. What they have deliberately omitted, is that they have not covered any of the positions left vacant by people leaving the company, or retiring. So they have already reduced the current workforce by the necessary 800.

Instead of employing people to fill these vacancies, management have been covering the duties through overtime. When their budget was exceeded, they tried to cover the duties by relying on the goodwill of the staff to change duties and times at short notice. This is how they have been masking the reduction of workforce already achieved.

Having read the Evening Standard article about the strike yesterday, the way they reported this left me speechless as to the slant of their reporting! I thought that the press were supposed to make unbiased reports about events, not act as a glorified press release for the benefit of management!

Now, I fully understand why management want to reduce the workforce in an effort to reduce the cost of operating the Underground. What I feel aggrieved about is how they are not telling anyone the whole story. This is what I believe this dispute is really about....

London Underground have for the past few years concentrated on driving forward policies to reflect their catchphrase slogan "A World Class Service For A World Class City". With this in mind, they have set targets for customer service as a major priority. Staff are constantly being assessed on the quality of their interaction with the customers. These assessments are conducted through an independent company using mystery shoppers. On the strength of these reports, London Underground then decide whether to pay any bonuses to staff or not.

Last year, London Underground reduced the the frontline workforce by 1000. Customers using the service may have noticed that Ticket Office opening hours had been reduced, and fewer staff around the stations, especially early mornings, late at night, and at weekends. Management have decided to reduce the workforce the the bare minimum allowed to operate the stations. They leave no leeway for any unforeseen problems that arise. Management will tell you that the Oyster Card they have introduced is a runaway success and that is why their is no need for staff to be available in Ticket Offices, as the amount of sales through Ticket Office windows have dropped by over 70%. Of course this has happened. Management deliberately engineered this to happen. Don't believe me? Then think on this -

In the outer zone stations, they are staffed by supervisors who have Ticket Office licences to sell tickets to customers. Before the first round of Ticket Office closures, these Supervisors manned the Ticket Offices from 07:00 to 23:00. At present, management have instructed these same Supervisors to open only during the morning peak hours (07:00 - 10:00), and in some cases the evening peak too (15:30 - 19:30). The rest of the time they just sit in their office monitoring the station! Now this is where I believe the Unions missed a golden opportunity. There were some Supervisor's who tried to keep their ticket offices open as they originally had been. Management then threatened these Supervisor's with disciplinary action if they continued to open the Ticket Office outside the designated times. The Unions should have backed these Supervisor's, and forced a confrontation with management over this. I am sure that the media would have had a field day vilifying management over this ludicrous policy! It's still not too late for Union's to do this, so if any Union member reads this, then perhaps this idea could bear further scrutiny!

Now let's look at how these proposed cuts in Ticket Office staff will affect the customers (passengers) who wish to travel on the Underground. If you are coming to London for the first time, you will have two choices. If you go to a Station where the Ticket Office is closed (almost certain early morning, late at night), then you can buy a full priced ticket (minimum £4.00). You might be lucky to find a newsagent nearby, or possibly an Oyster card dispenser where you can purchase the Oyster card. Then you can use the Oyster Card to get a discounted journey for £1.80. There will be some stations, though, where you will not be able to purchase an Oyster card if the Ticket Office is closed. Management believe it is good customer service to tell the customer they must leave the station and go somewhere else to purchase an Oyster card.

Sorry, from a customers point of view, that is NOT offering a World Class Service!

O.K. You now have your Oyster card and start your journey. You try to "touch in" on the reader and it doesn't work. The staff member at the gateline tries to check your card, and finds that it is faulty. If you are lucky, you can go to the Ticket Office to get a replacement. At this station you entered, the Ticket Office is closed. Either you go and find a Ticket Office that is open, or you have to purchase a full priced paper ticket (£4.00 again), and then have to contact Oyster Card Helpdesk for a refund later. Or you can hope the staff member will let you travel for free (especially if you have no means to purchase another ticket!) to your destination, as at your destination, the Ticket Office there might be open. With the new proposed closures management want to implement, you might find the Ticket Office closed at your destination too! Now you have travelled for free to your destination, the staff there cannot direct you to an open Ticket Office, so they have to let you out of the Station. Result for you! You have just had a free journey, thanks to managements policy of closing Ticket Offices! There are a lot of savvy people out there who now take advantage of travelling very early, or very late, with faulty Oyster cards, knowing that they will get a free journey! I wonder if the customers who have to pay for their journey feel they are getting a World Class Service?

Now let's look at another problem. You have loaded up your Oyster Card with money, expecting it to last for all the journeys you intend to make. For some reason after a couple of journeys, it stops working due to insufficient funds. When a staff member checks your Oyster Card it shows there is unresolved journeys. Basically this means that the card hasn't registered the entry point or exit point on a journey. What a lot of people do not realise is the discounted journey is only given on completed journey's. If the card has not registered a complete journey, £4.60 is deducted instead of the £1.80 you expected. This can easily be resolved though, just go to the Ticket Office, and they can re-credit your card.... er.... sorry, the Ticket Office is closed. You can either add more money at the machine, or try phoning the Oyster help desk, only you will be held in a queue for a very long time before they answer, or even worse, this problem will happen outside their opening hours of 08:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday only!! Again, do you consider this to be a World Class Service?

I could go on about all the different ticketing issues and problems customers face every day, that an open Ticket Office could quickly and easily resolve. If Management are determined to reduce Ticket Office hours, and ultimately close them eventually, why can't they be honest with the public and staff, and no longer promote their policy of providing a World Class Service. A World Class Service means that we should provide a service that does not inconvenience ANY of our customers AT ANY TIME. Closing Ticket Offices is doing precisely the opposite!

This is why I agree with the Unions fighting these job cuts, as I believe we will be providing a "Worse Class Service" instead of a "World Class Service". If the staff don't make a stand now, who's to say how far Management will go in their reduction of frontline staff in the future?