NETWORK RAIL: WELFARE PROVISIONS & SAFE ACCESS TO SANITARY FACILITIES FOR NEWCASTLE OVERHEAD LINE PATROL WORKERS

Our ref: HSR

Head Office Circular: NP/120/25

22^nd July 2025

To: The Secretary

All branches

Regional Councils

 

Dear Colleague

NETWORK RAIL: WELFARE PROVISIONS & SAFE ACCESS TO SANITARY FACILITIES FOR NEWCASTLE OVERHEAD LINE PATROL WORKERS

Your Newcastle and Gateshead branch submitted the following resolution: 

This branch notes with serious concern the ongoing situation affecting RMT members working at Newcastle Overhead Line in relation to the inadequacy of welfare arrangements and access to sanitary facilities during patrol duties.

This Branch is particularly alarmed by the following:

• Members undertaking patrols spanning many miles, often working alone, are not provided with clear, safe systems of work to access toilet facilities when required
• Management have indicated that if a worker "is stuck", they should escalate the situation and "we will get you off the track" — an instruction which is reactive, ambiguous, and insufficient to meet legal standards of worker welfare
• Such arrangements fail to address foreseeable, routine human needs and place members in an unacceptable position of uncertainty, risking their health, dignity, and wellbeing.
• The current arrangements may be in breach of the following statutory obligations:
• The Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, Regulation 20, which mandates that sanitary conveniences be provided at "readily accessible places", the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, requiring adequate welfare provision for workers at transient sites, such as those engaged in patrol and maintenance duties, Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Section 2(2)(e), which imposes a duty on employers to provide adequate welfare facilities, HSE Guidance for Lone Workers (INDG73 Rev4, 2020), which specifies that lone workers must have access to welfare facilities, including planned toilet breaks, as part of a safe system of work.
• Members have expressed legitimate concern that, in the absence of a pre-planned method of safe withdrawal from patrol, they face situations where they are many miles from any access point, with no immediate recourse to welfare facilities. Such scenarios present foreseeable health risks, including dehydration, bladder infections, or distress, and degrade the dignity of the workforce
• Management have indicated that this issue will be "looked into" as part of a patrols workstream, but there has been no formal resolution or interim safe system communicated to the workforce at Newcastle OHL (Overhead Line).

This Branch further notes:

• The failure to adequately plan for basic human needs is not only a welfare issue but a clear industrial relations concern.
• The company’s failure to proactively address this predictable situation exposes our members and the company to legal liability and reputational damage.

This Branch believes:

• Access to sanitary facilities is a fundamental human right and a minimum legal expectation of any safe system of work.
• The current arrangements fall short of both the law and the moral obligation of the employer to safeguard the health and dignity of its workforce.
• Proactive planning — not reactive escalation — is required to protect the welfare of our members.

Therefore, this Branch asks the National Executive Committee to:

• Instruct the Lead Officer to raise this matter as a matter of urgency with the company at national level, with specific reference to the situation at Newcastle Overhead Line, and to press the company to implement immediate improvements to welfare arrangements.
• Issue formal guidance to all RMT representatives and members across the infrastructure maintenance workforce, setting out their legal rights regarding access to welfare facilities, and providing advice on how to challenge inadequate or unsafe arrangements.
• Pursue a full risk assessment and the development of a robust safe system of work for Newcastle Overhead Line patrols, to be created in full consultation with this trade union, and which ensures pre-planned, safe access to toilet facilities, particularly for lone workers.
• Escalate this matter to the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), should the company fail to address these serious concerns promptly and effectively.”

Your National Executive Committee, at its meeting on 15^th July 2025, noted and adopted the following report from its H&S subcommittee:

We instruct the General Secretary to thank the Newcastle and Gateshead branch for their resolution. 

We also instruct the General Secretary to write to Network Rail noting that transient facilities are not acceptable, that the situation as described in the resolution have been exasperated by Modernising Maintenance and accompanying changes in ways of working.

We also instruct the General Secretary to:

( I ) Demand that this issue is placed on the agenda of the next meeting of the next National Health, Safety and Welfare Council

(2) Review NWR standard ‘NR/L2/OHS/CP0036 - The provision of welfare facilities for temporary and transient work activities (formerly NR/L3/INI/CP0036)’, to assess whether the standard is adequate, and if not to seek a review. If the standard is not to a required standard, then for this to be included in our correspondence with ORR as per paragraph below. 

(3) Request a risk assessment and development of robust safety system of working for Newcastle Overheard Line patrols, which ensures pre-planned, safety access to toilet facilities, particularly for lone workers. For this work to be done in consultation with local RMT safety representatives 

 

Should Network Rail fail to address our concerns promptly and effectively, the General Secretary to write to ORR: and also to raise this in respect to their ongoing welfare rights campaign.

Additionally, we instruct the General Secretary to conduct a national survey of OHL members in respect of their welfare rights.  

Branches and Regional Councils to be informed accordingly. 

 

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

 

Yours sincerely,

 

 

 

Eddie Dempsey, General Secretary