Network
Contributing Writer rail@bauermedia.co.uk
LNER is to be hit by fresh industrial action in a dispute with ASLEF, with drivers striking on Saturday April 20 and refusing to work overtime from Friday-Sunday April 19-21.
The action is separate from the ongoing 22-month national dispute about pay which also involves LNER, although it is related to what ASLEF described as LNER’s “failure to adhere to the agreed bargaining machinery”.
ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan claimed that LNER is “changing terms and conditions on a whim”.
He added: “We are not prepared to put up with being bullied and pushed about by a company that thinks it can break agreements whenever it feels like it.”
The dispute with LNER over breaking of agreements has been ongoing for nearly two years.
According to ASLEF, it started with drivers complaining about being constantly badgered for favours and non-compliance with rostering arrangements, with LNER trying to run services without sufficient drivers and relying heavily on rest-day working and favours. ASLEF claims that LNER uses managers to drive trains on strike days and, after the expiry of the last non-contractual overtime agreement, on “most days of the week now”.
There is no agreement in place for management to drive trains, and results in branch services such as Lincoln, Skipton and Harrogate being cancelled because of a lack of route knowledge.
ASLEF also claims this means that “virtually no driver training is being done”, and that assessments, training, and general managerial duties stack up and are left to one side, while the managers are driving.
Scotland
Operations Team Manager (OTM) grades staged a two-day strike at ScotRail on March 30/31, in the latest stage of a dispute dating back to late 2021. Similar action took place in December 2023.
As part of the dispute, over the terms and conditions of on-call working arrangements, TSSA members have withdrawn from the ‘out of hours’ on-call period - generally between 2300 and 0700. During this period, ScotRail has no first line on-call coverage.
One effect of this is that when the driver of an Aberdeen to Inverness train passed a red signal (SPAD), passengers were stuck on the stationary train for three hours until the driver was relieved.
Under SPAD rules, a driver has to be immediately relieved of duties while checks are carried out. This would normally be carried out by a Driver Team Manager, but on this occasion was not possible owing to the TSSA dispute.
The union has now met Cabinet Secretary for Transport Fiona Hyslop to urgently highlight concerns, stressing that “ScotRail must act to stop this happening again”.
The TSSA dispute includes Conductor Team Managers, Driver Team Managers, On Train Team Manag
