Roster publishing to all staff.

[BucketofSpoons]

Recently had a brief discussion with my roster clerk in regards to not publishing rosters of relief (flexi) staff.

I was told it is a legal requirement to publish everyone’s roster to all staff.

Does anyone know if this is true and if so why?

Cheers

 

[Tazi Hupefi]

I have zero railway knowledge of rostering, but legally, there is nothing stopping an employer from publishing a rota internally for all to see. Indeed, it may even be necessary for operational reasons, or in the interests of fairness, for example, to check that favouritism etc hasn't been introduced.

It is likely to be proportionate and necessary to work in that way. If you had a very specific reason why you did not want your shifts to be published, it would likely need to be on the basis of a protected reason. It is possible that some of your colleagues do have a protected reason.

However, equally, unless it is a term and condition of your employment, there is no requirement for the employer to do the exact opposite. I suspect most of your terms and conditions will be within a collective bargaining agreement rather than your contract of employment.

Legally - in terms of regulation or statute - there is no requirement to publish, or indeed, not to publish.

 

[Efini92]

Recently had a brief discussion with my roster clerk in regards to not publishing rosters of relief (flexi) staff.

I was told it is a legal requirement to publish everyone’s roster to all staff.

Does anyone know if this is true and if so why?

Cheers

Just out of interest, what’s your reason for not wanting it published?

 

[185]

Most probably not legally preventable, if the employer wants to publish the roster outlining who is working what, I think there would be a pretty difficult case for the RMT/Thompsons under the equality act to prove that this behaviour:

1. Discriminated against the flexi working aka accommodated employee and
2. Revealed medical information about that person's condition, situation or disability.

I'm thinking it would be a pretty difficult case at tribunal, but as for stating 'it's the law', that's probably nonsense, the law is there is no law ergo nothing stopping the employer posting a full unredacted roster.

 

[adc82140]

I write rotas as part of my job (not railways- NHS). I'm not aware of any legislation that either requires me to or prevents me from publishing the rota to everyone. That will include agency staff. Staff working need to know who else is expected to attend for a shift. We allow occasional requests for "no days" which are requests for a particular day off without taking annual leave, but these are kept off the published rota. The other staff don't need to know about their colleagues dental appointments etc. I have never received a request from anyone not to have their shifts published. In fact publishing to all lessens the chance of a mistake going unnoticed (and like the best of us I do occasionally make them )

 

[Annetts key]

In Network Rail maintenance, rosters have to be provided to the local staff representatives. Who in turn will discuss these with the staff they represent. If there is a failure to agree, it then goes further up the structure of the agreements.

At no time have I ever heard of a in use roster not being available for other teams in the same depot to view.

Obviously if a person is off for medical or other personal reasons, then that’s different. But that’s only going to apply to that person and a limited number of days.

Similarly, the signallers all appear to know what their fellow signallers are working.

 

[Craig1122]

Would agree with others there's no legal requirement either to publish or not to publish.

Without knowing what job we're talking about I would say that in quite a few roles it would be potentially impractical or detrimental to the service not to publish

 

[BucketofSpoons]

Just out of interest, what’s your reason for not wanting it published?

When relief staff are rostered as spare other resident staff seem to fall ill. It’s almost as if the two are connected…

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 25 Jan 2023 ==

Would agree with others there's no legal requirement either to publish or not to publish.

Without knowing what job we're talking about I would say that in quite a few roles it would be potentially impractical or detrimental to the service not to publish

Operations. I understand the practicalities of publishing to all, however, I would argue that in some cases it is in fact detrimental to publish spare days as it seems to encourage others to chance a last minute day off. Therefore causing havoc to the set roster.

 

[Craig1122]

Some truth in that. Where I was involved in rostering spare days weren't really a thing, uncovered duties however...