It looks as though railway industry bosses will go for a unilateral ramping up of services from tomorrow, 11 May, despite no national agreement with our unions being in place to facilitate this.
Unions had been negotiating towards an agreement, with a projected date of 18 May in mind for a possible increase in services. Bringing that forward a week could mean many of the safety measures implemented during the pandemic, such as temporary rosters to eliminate non-essential work, could end without new arrangements being put in their place.
On the Tube, bosses insist there will be no ramp up on 11 May and say they are still working towards 18 May.
RMT has rightly issued advice to all its members reminding them of their legal rights to refuse to work in unsafe conditions. If bosses impose a ramp up without putting additional safety measures in place, and it becomes impossible to maintain safe distancing in the workplace (either between us and our workmates, or between us and passengers), we have to refuse to work. It's that simple.
