Last chance to talk, says RMT as DLR members vote for action

Publication Date: June 13 2006

SERCO should get back to the talks table if it wants to avoid industrial action over its plans to slash safety-critical platform staff on the Docklands Light Railway, Britain’s biggest rail union warned today, after members voted for action to defend jobs and pay.

In the ballot that closed today, RMT's 250 Serco/DLR members voted for strike action and for action short of strike against plans that include cutting safety-critical platform staff, cutting station assistants' pay by up to £5,000 and doing away with more than half the current station supervisors.

"We told the company that its plans were unacceptable, and now our members have delivered a decisive mandate for industrial action to defend these safety-critical jobs," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"However it is dressed up, this re-organisation means a cut in safety-critical staff and fewer people on duty on a railway where most stations are already unstaffed, and it means the downgrading of the skills of those station staff that remain.

"RMT members across the company have rallied to defend their colleagues' jobs and to prevent watering down of safety standards, and they are to be congratulated for their stand.

"We remain ready to talk about the serious issues involved, but our members have voted for action and Serco should understand that their choice is to talk seriously or face the prospect of industrial action," Bob Crow said.