Fatal assault of RMT member Jorge Ortega

Our ref: HSR

Head Office Circular NP/299/24

20th January 2025

To: The Secretary

ALL BRANCHES

REGIONAL COUNCILS

 

Dear Colleague

 

FATAL ASSAULT OF RMT MEMBER JORGE ORTEGA

 

I write further to my circular dated 13th December 2024 regarding the death of RMT member Jorge Ortega of South East Essex Branch, a Customer Experience Assistant for MTR Elizabeth Line who sadly passed away on Friday 6th December following a severe assault at Ilford train station on Wednesday 4th December 2024. 

 

At its meeting on 14th January 2025 your NEC (National Executive Committee) noted and adopted the report as below of its Health and Safety sub-committee from when it met to consider branch and regional council resolutions (as attached) and a response to my letter from British Transport Police (BTP) Chief Constable on this matter.  The NEC decision is as follows:

 

We note the correspondence on file.

 

The General Secretary instructed to resend the previous correspondence to those who have not yet responded, prior to further considering the contents of the various resolutions on this matter received thus far.

 

The General Secretary is further instructed to continue to offer support to the family of Brother Ortega and to continue to campaign vigorously for the for the safety of all our members.

 

All branches and regional councils to be made aware of the meeting which was held between MTREL members and this NEC in Unity House on 17th December and of actions which have subsequently taken place. 

 

I am acting in line with these instructions. 

 

Meeting: Unity House, 17th December 2024

On 17th December I met with RMT MTREL representatives and their Regional Organiser. Also present were RMT President, NEC members, Assistant General Secretaries and RMT Health and Safety officers. The meeting started with a minute’s silence for Jorge. We then discussed immediate changes MTREL must make to address assaults at work. 

 

Additionally, it was agreed:

  • That I would write to the Secretary of State, Heidi Alexander, BTP Chief Constable, the Mayor of London, Department of Transport (Secretary of State), and to MTREL to explain that there must be a joined-up and coherent response that makes the Elizabeth Line, and public transport services more generally, a safe, secure and hospitable environment for both staff and users
  • That assaults at work should be a feature of the RMT H&S advisory conference and the National Industrial Organising Conference of Station and Associated Grades
  • That I would write to MTREL, TfL and the Major with a specific set of issues that require immediate actions to address on the Elizabeth Line. 

 

Concern was expressed at the pending transfer to a new concession holder for the Elizabeth Line, as MTREL have already understaffed the line compared to the usage levels and this may be exacerbated by possible cost-cutting by the new provider.

Please bring this circular to the attention of relevant members.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary 

www.rmt.org.uk/healthandsafety

 

 

Midlands Regional Council has submitted the following resolution: 

“That this branch/Regional Council is shocked and appalled to learn the tragic news of our fellow member at Ilford MTR EL station losing his life after an unprovoked attack at work.

We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and workmates whose pain we cannot imagine.

We appreciate RMT has ran a Zero Tolerance campaign for several years however we believe that our strategy must be further developed and intensified.

We therefore ask our national leadership to meet with all station grades functional council reps as a matter of urgency to forge strengthened policy.

We strongly believe that all options should be considered including appropriate industrial action. The effectiveness of regularly waving flags and banners outside Parliament and sending politicians postcards has shown its limitations.

We also believe there should be emergency debates at the forthcoming IOCs involving our General Secretary in order to underline how seriously we take this toxic culture and maximise publicity re our anger and frustrations.

We suggest the campaign slogan should now be:

*ZERO TOLERANCE IS A DEMAND NOT A REQUEST*”

 

Manchester and North West Regional Council has submitted the following resolution:

That this Regional Council is shocked and appalled to learn the tragic news of our fellow member at Ilford MTR EL station losing his life after an unprovoked attack at work.

We send our heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and workmates whose pain we cannot imagine. 

We appreciate RMT has run a Zero Tolerance campaign for several years however we believe that our strategy must be further developed and intensified. 

We therefore ask our national leadership to meet with all station grades functional council reps as a matter of urgency to forge strengthened policy. 

We believe that the issue of lone working should be looked at and avoided as much as possible, our members are consistently being placed in a vulnerable position due to cost cutting by their employers, CCTV for example, does not act as an appropriate replacement for members of staff and by the time someone has reacted to what they may see on CCTV it will often be too late. 

This Regional Council also notes the decrease of BTP officers at many locations, indeed we have stations in our region where the nearest BTP officer is 2hrs away. This Regional Council believes the lack of BTP resource only encourages those wishing to cause issues for our members to do so knowing they will likely face no repercussions. 

We further note that there appears to be zero deterrent for people who attack our members, we know of members in our region who have been physically assaulted yet the perpetrators have failed to be banned from using the railway and remained free to continue to intimidate our members. This must stop! This region firmly believes if zero tolerance was shown then our members would be treated with far more dignity and respect in all roles.

We strongly believe that all options should be considered including appropriate industrial action. The effectiveness of regularly waving flags and banners outside Parliament and sending politicians postcards has shown its limitations 

We also believe there should be emergency debates at the forthcoming IOCs involving our General Secretary in order to underline how seriously we take this toxic culture and maximise publicity re our anger and frustrations.

We suggest the campaign slogan should now be:

*ZERO TOLERANCE IS A DEMAND NOT A REQUEST*