RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2023 – CARLISLE SUPPORT SERVICES (NORTHERN TRAINS GATELINE AND REVENUE CONTRACT)

Our Ref: BR1/0001/CSS(NTL)

 

1 July 2024

 

 

Dear RMT Member

 

RATES OF PAY & CONDITIONS OF SERVICE 2023 – CARLISLE SUPPORT SERVICES (NORTHERN TRAINS GATELINE AND REVENUE CONTRACT)

 

We have been alerted to a further communication sent out last Friday by Carlisle Support Services CEO Paul Evans to you and your colleagues. 

 

Again, I have to express my disappointment and frustration with the contempt CSS are treating you with as RMT members currently taking industrial action in pursuit of justice and equality. 

 

The formation of an Employee Forum is nothing more than a cop out from your employer and an attempt to hoodwink you all into believing they are now listening and addressing the very same workplace issues you have been raising for the last seven years that have so far fallen upon deaf ears. 

 

“Employee Forums” are NOT supported by your union and are historically nothing more than talking shops where consultation takes place on issues affecting employees without ever realistically resolving anything. A legally binding agreement formed through negotiation between a trade union and an employer CANNOT be achieved through these type of forums. It is your employer’s way of paying you lip service without committing to any signed agreement through the machinery of negotiation. Negotiations through collective bargaining are the only way to secure legally binding agreements that advance our members’ pay and conditions - the offer to enter into a voluntary recognition agreement remains firmly on the table from our side and remains the only sensible option in resolving this dispute. 

 

If Carlisle Support Services are serious about listening to the issues affecting over 150 RMT members employed on this contract, then it should do the right thing and sign a voluntary recognition agreement that gives our members a voice at the negotiating table. Don’t fall for the lies that Carlisle Support Services are peddling that it is not possible to recognise the RMT whilst the statutory recognition on this contract belongs to the GMB. We totally refute this claim and cannot be clearer when we say to you that it is legally within the gift of your employer to agree a voluntary recognition agreement with the RMT. Again, you have to ask yourself why they won’t commit to this when they recognise the RMT on numerous other railway contracts nationally throughout the country? 

 

Further, it has been noted that the client, Northern Trains Ltd, have accepted the invitation to join this “employee forum”. This is a further slap in the face as we have invited Northern Trains to participate in tripartite discussions on numerous occasions in an attempt to agree a settlement to this dispute to which they have declined our invitation. If Northern Trains wish to have “open communication channels,” as quoted by your CEO Paul Evans, then we reiterate that the door to attend tripartite discussions to resolve this dispute remains firmly open. 

 

Finally, thanks for all the steadfast support shown to each other on this contract throughout this dispute whilst we await the re-ballot result next week. Once the ballot result is declared next week, then we prepare to go again in our continued fight for justice and equality for outsourced Carlisle Support Service members on the Northern Trains contract.

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary