WORKING CONDITIONS – EUROSTAR INTERNATIONAL & ASSOCIATED CONTRACTORS

Our ref: HSR

Head Office Circular: NP/135/25

6^th August 2025

To: The Secretary,

EPS Branch and Regional Councils

 

Dear Colleague

 

WORKING CONDITIONS – EUROSTAR INTERNATIONAL & ASSOCIATED CONTRACTORS 

 

Your European Passenger Services (EPS) branch submitted the resolution:

 

This branch notes ongoing safety concerns and welfare issues across the business affecting our members in all areas of the workplace.

 

This branch further notes:

 

• An increased workload without sufficient staffing levels and increased pressure on staff from management.

• High passenger loadings and pressure from chief officers, mean the focus has shifted to keeping sets in service at all costs, often through the use of derogations, to meet a timetable that has not been capped to accommodate inevitable equipment changes.

• Maximising profit has taken precedent over safety as trains are being let into service with more and more derogations which the safety reps no longer have access too.

• The absence of engineering expertise among senior managers at TMI has led to flawed and unsafe decisions, including attempts to overrule qualified engineers.

• The Operational Control Centre has been a failure since it opened in May 2024. The continued lack of knowledge and communication has been present since the opening and shows no sign of improvement and members have zero confidence in their ability to manage basic operations safely let alone severe disruption.

That the daily cycle of cancellations, equipment changes and disruption is placing a heavy

and unsustainable burden on overstretched staff in stations, onboard, in the contact centre and among Eurostar contractors, and the solutions are as follows:

 

• Reduce the timetable to allow maintenance to take place.

• Cap the trains

• Fix the OCC

 

This branch requests via the NEC that the General Secretary writes to Eurostar to convene an urgent meeting with RMT representatives from the affected grades, the lead officer, the senior safety team including those based at TMI, revenue management to discuss these cross-functional issues.

 

Subsequent to this, I received an in-depth report on these issues from the EPS branch secretary.

 

 

At its meeting on 22^nd July 2025, your National Executive Committee noted and adopted the following report from its health and safety subcommittee:

 

That we note resolution from European Passenger Services Branch and the in-depth report from the Branch secretary.

 

We instruct the General Secretary to convene an urgent meeting with the lead officer, our representatives and the company’s senior safety managers and revenue management teams to address concerns that have been raised about the following:

 

-           Operational safety

-           Maintenance safety

-           Operations Control Centre (OCC) in Brussels

-           Fleet reliability

-           Capacity and timetable

-           Impact on core Eurostar contractors providing intrinsic services

 

Furthermore, we instruct the General Secretary to remind all members at Eurostar about the WorkSafe policy, which is grounded in the Employment Rights Act 1996 Section 44 and Section 100.

 

Members at Eurostar, Mitie, Churchill (Eurostar contract only), Rail Gourmet and Momentum, the branch and regional council to be informed by text and email.

 

I am acting in line with these instructions. 

 

 

I remind members of your rights under the company’s WorkSafe Policy and in legislation (Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996). You should remove yourself to a place of safety if you feel you are in serious and imminent danger and not to work if you believe your safety is compromised. I refer you also to RMT’s booklet on Serious and Imminent Danger, which can be viewed here.

 

 

Please bring this circular to the attention of all relevant members.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Eddie Dempsey, 

General Secretary