Restructuring of Network Rail

[Pandora]

The situation of Network Rail, post Covid, is under deep review,  reduced financial contributions  from Govt coffers heralds  an initiative for  a major restructure of the railway with far reaching potential for considerable numbers of jobs to go from the railway.

Railwaymen in my social circle advise me talks with unions are to begin in the next  few months. They tell me it could be the biggest shake up of the railway since privatisation 25 years ago.

Does anyone have any opinions of where the changes will occur?

[Oldddudders]

No inside info, but a certainty that now is not the moment. Crystal balls worldwide are opaque on how life will look in a year's time, in terms of mobility and thus demand for public transport. Downsizing reflects early 2021 demand levels, but will the vaccines see Covid off so we start where we left off? 

[APOLLO]

I thought with the green agenda we would need our railways more than ever in the coming years. Along with petrol / diesel ban, coal all but eliminated and the demonisation of natural gas etc - The world has gone mad.

 

God help our kids.

 

Brit15

[Wheatley]

Well, if you want to break the power of the unions, now is the time to do it. 

 

"If you do this we're on strike".

"Fine, off you go..."

 

Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells is zooming in his home office, not complaing that a national strike is disrupting his commute.

Edited March 21, 2021 by Wheatley

[black and decker boy]

This email from RMT to its members at NR was published over on WNXX

 

To: Network Rail RMT Members


Dear colleague

RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2021 - NETWORK RAIL

I am writing to update you on issues connected to the 2021 pay negotiations and I can first of all advise you that, although there have been discussions, there has still not been any written response or proposal from the company. 

However, there have been on-going sessions at the Rail Industry Recovery Group (RIRG) and some informal discussions at Director level as to what the company is envisaging as part of any efficiency measures to fund a pay offer.

The company is preparing to table a briefing of these measures at a meeting of the Network Rail Business Council on 24th March. They hope that discussions on these measures will form a part of the industry-wide RIRG discussion and would, from their view, dispose of the 2021 pay negotiations which would be subsumed in to their efficiencies programme.

Whether there is an industry-wide agreement via the RIRG or not, it is also clear that Network Rail will press ahead with its proposals which will constitute a major reduction in costs via a pay freeze, attacks on conditions, major jobs cuts and dilution of standards based on risk.

It is now clear to your negotiators that what Network Rail is preparing to propose will include at least:

· Wholescale job cuts across the organisation - numbers unknown but likely to be in the thousands.
· A pay freeze of an unknown duration.
· Wide-ranging reorganisation affecting:
o Managed stations staff moving to a “One Team” concept with unknown effects on station staff numbers, duties, terms & conditions in both Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies.
o Risk-based maintenance being extended so that Network Rail can dilute current maintenance frequencies and cycles with some assets completely un-maintained.
o A 50% reduction in Maintenance Scheduled Task with a potentially massive effect on maintenance section staffing establishments.
o Introduction of new technology measures again affecting maintenance and inspection regimes and staffing numbers.
o Joint working across maintenance disciplines which would end the current distinctions between established departmental disciplines such as S&T, OLE, P-WAY, P&D etc.
o Pooling of all Operative grades.
o Overlapping skills between current disciplines.
o Issuing of a new contract of employment replacing the current Infrastructure Maintenance Company contracts.
o Individual/personal rostering in Maintenance (elimination of team structures such as 3-person S&T Teams.
o More unsocial hours and weekend working.
o Progressing with “21st Century Operations”, “Digital Railway” and “Intelligent Infrastructure”.
o In tandem with the above, there is an ever-present drive to simply remove, as far as possible, track workers from the Infrastructure during traffic hours along with consideration of the effects of the new Fatigue Standards.

As can be seen from the above, this represents an enormous challenge to jobs, working lives and practices, and to work/life balance.

In Network Rail's view, all of this is to be accomplished by the company within the context of a pay freeze of unknown duration and will also be undertaken without a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies in place in any part of the company.

It has also stated that the only way to generate any money for pay increases is through the agreement and adoption of a package of measures such as outlined above.

Network Rail is not intending to consult RMT on the dilution of maintenance standards and schedules which would enable the 50% reduction in Maintenance Scheduled Tasks. This will hamper our ability to challenge the dilution of safety standards and the cuts to jobs.

Most of these measures have been resisted by RMT for years and the union cannot now be cowed into a position where it foregoes its principles and we must be prepared to defend your jobs, terms & conditions, pay, working practices and your work/life balance.

While your union can discuss and negotiate, to defend our members, on items that the company brings forward, we must be able to fight against unreasonable measures and against the possible imposition of compulsory redundancies, pay freezes or un-agreed changes to conditions, working practices and standards.

You and your colleagues in Network Rail must be prepared for that fight.

On that basis, your union's National Executive Committee has therefore declared that your union is on a “dispute-footing” with Network Rail in order to campaign and fight for our members in the company.

Your NEC has instructed me to:

· Seek professional/legal advice on the company's intention to drastically dilute maintenance standards and schedules which would provide the scope for job cuts.
· Inform our Network Rail members that we are on a “dispute-footing” and that the matters are so serious that we must ready ourselves for any coming dispute and organise on that basis.
· Instigate a recruitment and organisation drive within Network Rail using our Representatives, activists and branches to recruit any non-members and to ensure that members' personal data is accurate in preparation for any ballot that we may need.
· Organise a mass meeting of Network Rail Representatives as soon as is feasible following the NR Business Council on 24th March.

I do not apologise for the length of this email to you as I want you and your colleagues to have a full picture of the attacks Network Rail is lining up against your pay, working arrangements and safety at work.

The success we have in fighting off management's plans lie with everyone playing their part and, as a first step, I ask you to encourage any of your colleagues who are not yet in RMT to join up as soon as possible as we cannot defend their jobs and conditions if they are not in this union.

I will of course write to you again as further developments arise in this matter.

UNITY IS STRENGTH!
Yours sincerely,

Mick Cash
General Secretary

[APOLLO]

So it's back to Railtrack !!!

 

So sad. I thought our railways had brighter days ahead.

 

Brit15

[LBRJ]

Oh dear...

The country has spent just about its last dollar on fighting Covid 19 and Mick Cash is on his high horse already.....

Get Mick Rix back from the GMB ( what on earth made him turn up there? )

and we can have a full house....

 

At least when Bob was in charge we (and I mean we) felt like we had a leader.....

[John M Upton]

Trade Union tub thumping, haven't seen that for a while. Things must be getting back to normal then....

[hayfield]

I think most employees are now facing new working conditions whether they like it or not. On the other hand many who suffered the dredge of commuting have had their eyes opened to a new way of working and many have made the decision to change. My son in Law has stopped commuting and works remotely via phone/video links. My granddaughters fiancée is having contract rewritten to include working at home 50% of the time, he works for a local authority who see savings on real estate costs

 

The railways apparently are very quiet and unlikely to return to pre covid numbers, stands to reason the industry will shrink unless they can tempt travellers back on the trains for pleasure.

 

Why not bring back the away days/weekends/weeks ? Every other sector has had to think out of the box on how to reposition their businesses. The railways are not exempt and no matter how much these union barons moan, the workplace has changed forever. I saw the unions kill the printing industry in Watford, lets hope the railways don't go the same way. Like it or not the railways will have to adapt to the new normal.   

[Pandora]

Is this part 1 of a strategy?  First  the soft target  by cuttings costs of wages and  less routine maintenance,  and then later  a few closures of lines which are loss making?

[steve1]

1 hour ago, John M Upton said:

Trade Union tub thumping, haven't seen that for a while. Things must be getting back to normal then....

 

Sounnds to me more like a union wanting to do its best for its membership and not wanting said membership cr*pped on.

 

steve

[phil-b259]

11 hours ago, LBRJ said:

Oh dear...

The country has spent just about its last dollar on fighting Covid 19 and Mick Cash is on his high horse already.....

Get Mick Rix back from the GMB ( what on earth made him turn up there? )

and we can have a full house....

 

At least when Bob was in charge we (and I mean we) felt like we had a leader.....

 

Mick Cash is stepping down (some say he was forced out because he wasn't part of the inner cabal of ex London Underground staff built up by Bob Crow or he wasn't militant enough) and there will be a new person at the hem by the time negotiations start

Edited March 22, 2021 by phil-b259

[Pandora]

9 minutes ago, hayfield said:

I think most employees are now facing new working conditions whether they like it or not. On the other hand many who suffered the dredge of commuting have had their eyes opened to a new way of working and many have made the decision to change. My son in Law has stopped commuting and works remotely via phone/video links. My granddaughters fiancée is having contract rewritten to include working at home 50% of the time, he works for a local authority who see savings on real estate costs

 

The railways apparently are very quiet and unlikely to return to pre covid numbers, stands to reason the industry will shrink unless they can tempt travellers back on the trains for pleasure.

 

 

I'm hearing the same news, friends and neighbours inform me their offices are being closed, the leases terminated, they keep their jobs but work from home and  their employer intends to hire   conference centre facilities  for meetings but only  when essential, . The office staff I deal with are all convinced of working from home, quoting savings of  hundreds of pounds in  lessened car usage and lost time driving  to and from the office.  The figure NR is quoting to railway staff  an anticipation of  40% reduction in numbers  on the trains post-Covid. That is a serious drop in footfall in stations, i'm thinking  of the loss of trade affecting  retail outlets on the station concourses for one.

[phil-b259]

On 21/03/2021 at 20:29, Pandora said:

The situation of Network Rail, post Covid, is under deep review,  reduced financial contributions  from Govt coffers heralds  an initiative for  a major restructure of the railway with far reaching potential for considerable numbers of jobs to go from the railway.

Railwaymen in my social circle advise me talks with unions are to begin in the next  few months. They tell me it could be the biggest shake up of the railway since privatisation 25 years ago.

Does anyone have any opinions of where the changes will occur?

 

One word

 

Hatfield!

 

In the letter the RMT have put out for members the most chilling sentence is:-

 

Risk-based maintenance being extended so that Network Rail can dilute current maintenance frequencies and cycles with some assets completely un-maintained.

 

I work trackside and KNOW that the condition of the assets are nowhere as good as senior management like to think. Shiny new LED signal heads do nothing to fix the 40 year old cables riddled with earth faults feeding them or which have poor quality terminations. Fancy condition monitoring systems do nothing to fix life expired sleepers through pointwork where they have more holes than Swiss cheese due to backdrive cranks having been repositioned multiple times as they work lose.

 

In short, if this all gets ramroaded through people will die. OK not straight way, but it will happen.

 

 

Edited March 25, 2021 by phil-b259

[APOLLO]

What percentage of the UK's workforce / rail passenger commuters are office based and / or have the ability to work from home, thus impacting of passenger numbers. Yes greater in the South East, thinking of other conurbations, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester etc ?

 

Brit15

 

 

[Phil Parker]

36 minutes ago, hayfield said:

My granddaughters fiancée is having contract rewritten to include working at home 50% of the time, he works for a local authority who see savings on real estate costs

 

And of course they are paying for the increased mortgage for a house with a room spare for an office. I mean, it wouldn't just be a way to shift the costs of work on to the employee. And not worried about increases in claims for back pain.

[Mike_Walker]

I wouldn't place too much reliance on what the RMT says.  It is notoriously militant and appears to live on a different planet for much of the time.

 

The view taken by some of the most senior management in the industry that I know well is that it is simply too soon to know what the railways and patronage will look like post-Covid.  The general view is that it would not be wise to rush into major changes at this stage but to wait and see how things work out.

 

On the other hand, the Treasury is growing increasingly uneasy at the sums of money currently being spent on the railways and may as a result bring pressure on the DfT to impose cuts which we might all come to regret in future.

 

[phil-b259]

On 22/03/2021 at 10:44, hayfield said:

I think most employees are now facing new working conditions whether they like it or not.

 

 

That is self evident, and I would suggest that the 'silent majority' of railway staff accept that.

 

However you don't roll over and meekly accept the first offer you get do you? Be it buying a car, a house or engaging a contractor there is always an element where each side starts out from the most extreme positions and  work towards something that becomes mutually acceptable.

 

As I have said to colleagues, the RMTs letter is much the same as a boxer bad mouthing their opponent in press conferences / weigh ins. The goal is to create interest and hype up the stakes BEFORE the fight starts proper.

 

And it is going to be a fight - on one side you have got a union who positively loathe the Conservative Government and everything they stand for while on the other side you have a Conservative Government that would love to 'do a Maggie' and smash the Union like she did the miners.

 

The fact that trains are pretty quiet and the impact of industrial action will be far less thanks to changes such as a massive increase in working from home means and the collapse of the franchising model means the political fallout and voter backlash will be far less with public sympathy more likely to fall with the Government.

Edited March 24, 2021 by phil-b259

[Phil Parker]

5 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

What percentage of the UK's workforce / rail passenger commuters are office based and / or have the ability to work from home, thus impacting of passenger numbers. Yes greater in the South East, thinking of other conurbations, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester etc ?

 

Brit15

 

According to the ONS, via Google: "In April 2020, 46.6% of people in employment did some work at home."

 

I suspect that "some" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Anyone who uses e-mail can do "some" work from home, but if you can't do all your job then it's not really WFH. It might also only work for short periods of time.

 

My guess is that there will be a push for WFH that will be framed as good for the employee - supported by quotes from people in the Home Counties saying how much they save on train travel because everyone works in London. From an employer perspective, you hand the costs of providing office space and equipment to the employee. In return, they are available 24/7/365 to work for you. Yes, I know that's not how it's supposed to happen, but if you work in the lower levels in many busineses, that's exactly how it will be, and the chances of moving to a nicer employer will be limited.

 

As far as rail travel goes, we've had a year of being told "PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS EVIL AND WILL KILL YOU!" from official sources. That's bound to alter people's habits. The UK hasn't had a pro-public transport government since the war, and has always been happy to tear up tramways and train track for the benefit of the motor industry.

[corneliuslundie]

Yet note inclusion of building new roads in a recent government announcement!

There is a strong suspicion that the centralisation of the recovery fund which was supposed to be devolved is in part so that Westminster can force upgrading of the A55 and the duplicate Mr near Newport (through an SSSI) on Wales even though the Welsh Assembly has decided against the latter, and the former may not be necessary with reduced traffic to Holyhead post Brexit.

Consistency in government? Please show me some.

But please don't take this stream off piste with a discussion of roads or Wales (I know I have done so). The main issue is too important: SAFETY. That part of the NR plans is what we should really be worrying about

Jonathan

[John M Upton]

Trains are getting noticeably busier again. Just today, lots of college students and many more long distance travellers with suitcases along the Sussex coast. 

[caradoc]

Any proposal with a potentially adverse effect on safety must be scrutinised and opposed, not just by the Unions. But it does occur to me that some of the ideas are simply common sense and should have been introduced years ago, eg;

o Joint working across maintenance disciplines which would end the current distinctions between established departmental disciplines such as S&T, OLE, P-WAY, P&D etc.
o Pooling of all Operative grades.
o Overlapping skills between current disciplines.

 

And this idea is similar to what existed under BR, and would surely be re-instated should the RMT's dream of a nationalised unified railway come to pass; 

o Managed stations staff moving to a “One Team” concept with unknown effects on station staff numbers, duties, terms & conditions in both Network Rail and the Train Operating Companies.

 

And I would be surprised if the RMT actually opposed this ambition; 

o .....there is an ever-present drive to simply remove, as far as possible, track workers from the Infrastructure during traffic hours along with consideration of the effects of the new Fatigue Standards.

 

But perhaps we, and the RMT and other unions, should wait until NR publishes its plans ?

 

[caradoc]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

Yet note inclusion of building new roads in a recent government announcement!

 

Although the Oxford/Cambridge Expressway (road) has just been cancelled by Government, while East-West rail route construction continues ?!!

[hayfield]

2 hours ago, APOLLO said:

What percentage of the UK's workforce / rail passenger commuters are office based and / or have the ability to work from home, thus impacting of passenger numbers. Yes greater in the South East, thinking of other conurbations, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester etc ?

 

Brit15

 

 

 

Its not just office based, its all those who support them, shops, cafes, taxies etc.

 

Then its all those migrating further out of the city/suburbia

 

On the other hand many ex-commuters are a few thousand £'s better off not paying rail fares, rural house prices are soaring. There was an article recently about Cornwall being the most searched county for housing.

 

As for the unions their hold over workers is declining, if they go on strike, people will work from home    

[Wheatley]

And meanwhile ASLEF will quietly continue to play both sides off against the middle for as long as there exists an internal labour market which can't easily recruit from other industries, or until someone perfects Google Train. 

 

Which is why drivers get paid more than doctors and airline pilots and why they aren't on strike. 

Edited March 22, 2021 by Wheatley