LU guarantee of fairness to staff
25 Apr 2014 11:15 AM
All staff who want to stay with London
Underground will have a role
- No
compulsory redundancies and LU seeks ways to ensure no cuts in
pay
- Modernisation means levels of face-to-face customer
service seen during the London 2012 Games
·
- Bearing down on transport fares made possible by
modernising and improving transport while reducing overall
costs
Mike Brown, Managing Director of London Underground (LU)
guaranteed that not a single member of staff will be forced to leave the
company as a result of plans to modernise customer service on the
Tube.
There will also be no compulsory redundancies and LU is
seeking ways to ensure no member of staff sees their pay cut as a result of the
changes proposed.
Under LU's plans to improve customer service, the
public areas of stations – ticket halls, gate lines and platforms –
will become personalised customer service centres, replicating the standards of
service LU were able to offer during the London 2012 Games.
Staff will be brought out from behind hidden back
offices and the glass windows of under-used ticket offices to better serve
customers.
Everything that customers can do at a ticket office
window will be available to them more readily in future, with more LU staff
visible and available to help customers buy the right ticket, plan their
journey and keep them safe and secure at ticket machines, as well as on-line or
by telephone.
There will be even more staff available to help
customers with disabilities and new Visitor Information Centres will cater for
the needs of tourists and visitors to London at the busiest Tube stations,
including selling tickets.
650
staff already expressed their wish to leave under LU’s voluntary
redundancy arrangements, with a further opportunity to be made available to
Tube staff.
With the need for an additional 200 staff for the new 24
hour ‘Night Tube’ service at weekends from 2015, existing vacancies
and natural staff turnover, LU guaranteed that not a single member of staff
will be forced out of a job.
Publishing an Open Letter to Londoners that guarantees
fairness to staff , Mike Brown said: “Our stations will be
transformed to become customer service centres, to help you buy the right
ticket, plan your journey and to keep you safe and secure. These changes will
radically improve the service we offer our customers, enabling us to provide
the high quality, personalised customer service we delivered during the London
2012 Games every day. At LU, we strongly believe in treating our staff
fairly and with respect. That’s why I commit to the following for our
staff – all stations will remain staffed by LU employees, no staff will
be forced out of LU and we are looking to ensure no-one loses pay as a result
of these changes. Change is a constant for us all. But few, if
any, employers can offer such guarantees as LU has to its staff. I urge
the RMT to end their strike threats and continue to work with us to help shape
our Tube modernisation plans, as our other trades unions are doing.”
During intensive talks spanning eight weeks and over 40
meetings, LU has changed some of its proposals to reflect the feedback of staff
and unions, so that a Customer Service Supervisor will staff smaller, local
stations at all times, no supervisors need reapply for jobs, all applications
for voluntary redundancy will be honoured and we will look to ensure that no
staff lose pay.
All
four trades unions have been invited for further daily meetings with LU over
the next two weeks. However, the RMT leadership has stated that it will hold
two periods of strike action in the coming weeks, having failed to propose any
credible alternatives to LU’s proposals.
Given the success of Oyster and advances in on-line and
ticket machine technology, the use of ticket offices has dramatically
fallen.
Less than 3 per cent of journeys involve a visit to a
ticket office.
This trend is set to continue with the introduction of
contactless bank card payment later this year.
When customers do use a ticket office, it is for three
main reasons – to buy a ticket, fix a ticketing problem or get
information.
By
making more staff available in the public areas of stations – at ticket
machines, gate lines and platforms – these services will be significantly
improved for customers.
The
savings made in closing ticket offices - around £50 million each year or
£270 million up to 2020/21 - will help to bear down on fares and will be
reinvested in further improvements such as more frequent and reliable train
services, air-conditioned trains and extending WiFi.
LU
has given the following cast-iron guarantees of fairness to all staff as
modernisation continues:
- All
stations will continue to be staffed by LU employees at all times while trains
are operating
- No
compulsory redundancies. Over 650 staff have already applied for voluntary
redundancy and we will open up the opportunity for more to do so if they
wish
- Everyone who wants a job at LU can have one, and we will
continue to support people step-by-step to move into new roles through training
and development
- We
will seek to ensure that no staff will lose pay as a result of the planned
changes. Indeed, staff will have the opportunity to go for promotion and earn
more if that’s what they want to do. ENDS Notes to
Editors:
The
full text of Mike Brown’s open letter is reproduced below.
Tube modernisation: Fairness to staff guaranteed
Modernising your Tube
People – our customers and staff – are at
the heart of our plans to modernise the Tube.
In
future, rather than stuck behind glass windows in under-used, Victorian-style
ticket offices, we will have more staff visible and available where our
customers need them most – in ticket halls, at gate lines and on
platforms. We remain committed to all Tube stations being staffed at all
times when services are operating. Our stations will be transformed to become
customer service centres, to help you buy the right ticket, plan your journey
and to keep you safe and secure.For those who need further assistance, such as
tourists, we will have new Visitor Information Centres at our busiest
stations. These changes will radically improve the service we offer,
enabling us to provide every day the high quality, personalised customer
service we delivered during the London 2012 Games. They will also save
£50m per year and allow us to reinvest in better services and continue to
bear down on the fares you pay.
Treating staff fairly and with respect At London
Underground (LU) we strongly believe in treating our staff fairly and with
respect.
That’s why, alongside our commitments to
customers, I commit to the following for our staff
- All
stations will continue to be staffed by LU employees at all times while trains
are operating, including when we introduce a new 24hrs ‘Night Tube’
at weekends in 2015
- No
compulsory redundancies. Over 650 staff have already applied for voluntary
redundancy and we will open up the opportunity for more, if they
wish
- Everyone who wants to remain in a job at LU can do so.
We will support people through the changes we propose through training and
development
- Look to ensure that no staff will lose pay as a result
of these changes. Indeed, many staff will have the opportunity for promotion
and to earn more, if that’s what they choose
During intensive talks spanning eight weeks and over 40
meetings, LU has changed some of its proposals to reflect the feedback of staff
and unions. For example, all smaller, local stations will now be staffed
by a Customer Service Supervisor at all times and no supervisors need
‘reapply for their jobs’.
Not a single member of staff forced out of a
job
There will be a reduction of around 950 roles as a
result of the changes we propose, given that we will be serving customers in a
more modern and efficient way. But this does not mean that 950 people will lose
their jobs. In fact, not a single member of staff will be forced out of
LU. We know we can do this, as over 650 people have already applied for
voluntary redundancy. We will need an additional 200 staff when we introduce
the Night Tube. And the remaining 100 roles will be accounted for through
vacancies, staff turnover or through a further opportunity for voluntary
redundancy.
RMT leadership should end strike
threat
All
of this – our commitment to radically improve customer service, that all
stations will remain staffed by LU employees, that no staff will be forced out
of LU and we are looking to ensure no-one loses pay – means that there is
no reason for the RMT to continue to threaten Londoners with five days of
strike action. Change is a constant for us all. But few, if any,
employers can offer such guarantees as LU has to its staff. I urge the RMT to
end their strike threats and continue to work with us to help shape our Tube
modernisation plans, as our other trades unions are doing.
All that a strike will achieve is disruption for
Londoners and the loss of pay for those Tube staff who take
part.
However, should it go ahead, we will work hard to
provide you with the best service we possibly can on the Tube and across all
Transport for London services. We will also have our Travel Ambassadors out in
force to help you and offer travel information and advice.
For more information on our Tube modernisation
plans, visit tfl.gov.uk/futuretube
Mike Brown Managing Director, London
Underground