I think the Government is up for a fight on this
And im sure they will get a fight back , not sure really who has anything to gain out of that situation staff , passengers or the government .
It is. But they all seemed to be fine doing it 3 months ago!
When there is a RDW sanction apetites for overtime always fluctuate anyway , 3/4 months ago pre christmas is probably when the apetite is at its highest as people look to get a few extra pennies for christmas , heck I dont usually do any but even I have picked up a few extras in the lead up to christmas before .
But that is during normal times which I understand. But everyone not doing any isn't the same because we also hear of people kicking off about not having any overtime and losing money...
Ultimately it boils down to the industry should have zero overtime, it should be avaliable only to cover exceptional circumstances and high levels of sickness. Which I appreciate is nothing to do with the drivers, or to be honest the TOCs anymore. It isn't even the DfT it's the treasury.
Like I say my views are strong because whatever is going on at the moment, it isn't TPE managers who are suffering. It's people who commute and my commute is currently a nightmare, so much so I've changed my job.
There are always some who kick off about losing RDW , but they are not "losing money" because the RDW is never guranteed . Some as with all groups of employees live beyond their means and have set themselves up into financial situations where they rely on their OT , that in my view is not very sensible .
I seriously doubt there will ever be a situation when the industry can completely eliminate RDW and it has its place for things like training so you can run a 5 day traction course for example with grades that are only contracted to 4 day weeks . But my perception is that many TOC's simply lived it up when they had unlimited appetite for overtime and used it to cover the cracks in their crew numbers and training deficits . Much of this is an issue of the operators and to some extend whitehalls own making with the poor operational understanding exhibited by the DFT .
Exactly. Many of those working on the railway don't know how lucky they are compared to many in the public sector.
Maybe they do and that is why they have chosen to work in that industry . But look comparing industries is moot , pre covid traincrew always reieved above inflation payrises . Broadly the same people work in the industry and will no doubt want to return to that .
Ultimately the DfT want Sunday in the week, either for everyone or new hires. If you don't agree to that you're unlikely to get anything out of them.
I dont think the unions actually have an issue with Sunday in the working week , it is in the ASLEF charter and the RMT policy has always been to look for full employment , a clean salary and no overtime as well . Some individual members might have an issue but overall if sensible proposals are made from both sides to bring Sundays inside the working week I can see them being accepted by staff . Again referring to the DFT's poor operational understanding I think for years they have udnerestimated or been unable to account for the number of extra staff required to provide a reliable sunday service instead looking for unpalatable options like increasing the working week with very little compensation as was the case with the last TPE deal .
I actually think hiring in new staff under new agreements is the way forward. It’s standard practice in other industries to hire in new staff on different T&Cs.
To provide a meaningful sunday service you would have to hire many new staff on these new agreements , but Northern and TPE have already hired loads of new traincrew over the past 4 years in anticipation of new sunday timetables connected to the franchise commitments of the now void franchise agreements .Obviously those franchises are consigned to history but a sensible sunday service has got to be part of the recovery of rail in the North as its a huge untapped leisure market .
Of course you could try and hire sunday only traincrew and tbh with the DFT's lack of operational understanding it would not suprise me if this was attempted . But that would be doomed to failure .
It's also important to point out that RMT rejected the offer to bring Sunday pre-covid in the working week with a considerable increase in basic pay.
the RMT members rejected the offer , important nuanced distinction , the union actually put the offer out to the members .
