East Midlands Railway 170 Fleet Wrong Side Openings

Our ref: HSR/2/6

Head Office Circular: NP/194/23

10^th November 2023

To: The Secretary

ALL BRANCHES

REGIONAL COUNCILS

 

 

Dear Colleague,

 

EAST MIDLANDS RAILWAY 170 FLEET WRONG SIDE OPENINGS

 

Further to Head Office Circular NP/192/23, dated 27^th October, a response was received from the company stating that of the 14 incidents of wrong side door release, all except two have been attributed to Guard error and no faults found on the vehicles. 

 

The 170204 incident has been confirmed as a vehicle fault, and the set was immediately stood down and is still out of service until the full investigation is complete.

 

The company’s position remains that the 170 fleet are not the cause of these incidents and will remain in service unless any incidents demonstrates that it is a vehicle fault.

 

Following receipt of a report from the Lead officer, your National Executive Committee (NEC), at its meeting on 9^th November 2023, resolved as follows:

 

That we note and adopt the most recent report on file and instruct the General Secretary to notify that we demand an urgent meeting to be held with RMT representatives and EMR management to discuss and seek a mutual resolution. 

 

Furthermore, EMR wants to establish a dedicated working party comprising of our nominated representatives. This group should be tasked with addressing this issue for an initial period of one month, starting from the date of the agreement, with a continuous review mechanism in place. 

 

Unless an amicable agreement is reached we will ballot our members for industrial action. 

 

All affected members, branches, and regional councils to be advised by text and email. 

 

I am acting in line with these instructions. Please bring the contents of this circular to the attention of relevant members. 

 

Members are advised to refer to EMR’s Work Safe Procedure and also RMT’s guidance which can be viewed at: https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/publications/serious-and-imminent-danger-booklet/

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary