Not a good start for the SRT

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

This is the first week of the SRT working on stations. Tubeworker has spotted a few problems..........

The SRT seem to be causing resentment wherever they go. People feel they are 'stealing overtime'. While tubeworker is not a fan of overtime - it usually means management are not covering vacancies and employing too few staff - loss of overtime opportunities means a drop in pay for some who need it. The SRT have been employed to cover all big events where overtime would usually have been on offer.

They are being used to cover duties, and could cause staff cuts in the long-run.

A good portion of the Special Requirements Team have come from that well-known hell hole, Waterloo. This must have created vacancies on the Waterloo group, which management are now trying to fill by forcibly displacing people from other groups. We can't blame SRT people for wanting to get out of Waterloo, but we can feel sympathy with people who, fearing their own job stability, see a link between the SRT and forced displacements.

And how long before management try to use the SRT to cover strike days? Are they just training up an army of scabs? Maybe management are sick of getting their hands dirty every time they get dragged out of the offices on our strike days.

And permanent staff see the SRT as a waste of space. The SRT just don't know the stations. Familiarised on 40 stations, how can they possibly understand the workings of all of them? They don't seem to be at the same station for more than two days at a time, so there's no time to understand. When Oxford Circus went into station control due to overcrowding, the SRT staff didn't have a clue what to do and people were still pouring down onto the platforms. It's not their fault. But it doesn't help them to fit in and be accepted as part of the staff team.

With the SRT and regular staff working on the same station, two rival groups of managers who don't communicate with each other are now in charge. The station supervisor is given little warning or guidance about what to do with SRT staff. The SRT manager says the SRT can be used as an extra member of staff to do any job, but some SRT staff and some local managers say they should stick to SRT-specific roles. Again, not very helpful for building a 'team' between SRT and regular staff.

Meanwhile, the SRT staff themselves are totally pissed off. They feel they're being mucked around and abused: working one day here, then there, with last-minute changes and cancellations making plans impossible. They're not given time to make friends with other staff. They're sent to the worst places: Waterloo, where noone else will work; Charing Cross, where they just stood next to an escalator for eight hours. And they are being treated with definite hostility. One supervisor at Oxford Circus put someone on a platform for eight hours just to get them out of the way. It's so bad that around 75 out of the 100 or so of them have nominated to get out already.

They are now externally recruiting to the SRT to get enough staff. This indicates how unappealing the role is, even with the temptation of fixed shifts, which those with childcare needs or social lives(!)have taken up. So, soon we will have a team familiarised on 40 stations but without the experience of working at one. Again, not their fault, but will they really be able to understand the job? But having skilled, motivated staff is clearly not what our managers care about. An easily manipulated and exploited group of workers used to casualise the whole workforce is more their interest.

Comments

Submitted by Becky on Sun, 19/10/2008 - 15:48

it's good to hear the point of view of someone on the special requirements team. Sad to hear that you've not been made welcome at some places, especially when you've obviously worked really hard to make the first few weeks as successful as possible. i think the real root of the mistrust towards the srt is what management are doing to csas at the minute, with forced displacements etc. people worry that management have a long-term plan to make us all like the srt, with no fixed station groups when we first start(an idea management have made known to the RMT). it's really important that the srt get organised to take up their issues, as it's not right that they are feeling so demoralised. don't just rely on things to 'get better'.....management will not sort your issues out unless you make them. if there was an active campaign amongst the srt's, i'm sure station staff would give you 100% support, because it would be helping our job security, and proving that the srt are not there to undermine us. on the rmt platform website (www.rmtplatform.org.uk), there is a strategy for organising the srt. Please, people in the srt, contact the union and start to get organised. station staff are ready to support you!

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