Should stations reopen?

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,
Station closure board

LU has announced in an employee bulletin that it plans to reopen seven of the 37 stations that have been shut during the pandemic - Mansion House, Pimlico, Blackhorse Road, Bounds Green, Bow Road, Bayswater, and Warwick Avenue. It is suggested that this might help relieve congestion at other stations.

The key metric for us should be whether we can maintain a safe, essential staffing level across stations, with only the minimum required number of staff present, for the shortest possible amount of time. This is in order that staff can maintain 2m distancing from each other, and from passengers, and comply with the overall guidance to eliminate non-essential work.

We're not convinced that reopening stations at this time is "essential." The situation should be kept under review, and ultimately it's frontline workers and our elected safety reps who should make the call, not a senior manager who's probably working from home.

If and when stations do reopen, the clear message to all staff has to be: if you feel unsafe, don't work. If you're asked to do something that puts you at risk, don't do it. If you need to remove yourself to a place of safety, where you can distance safely from workmates and passengers, you should.

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