Tubeworker recommends to Endemol and Channel Four a possible venue for the next series of Big Brother - the new Waterloo & City line signal cabin.
It's got cameras pointing at the staff, though no-one seems to know who's looking at the monitors. And you have to walk through the changing room to get...
Management's latest 'employee communications' bulletin on pay makes interesting reading. That's "interesting" as in "downright cheeky".
There are some sections that would benefit from translation:
Here's another little gem from the Working Reference Manual review. Apparently, although management accept that the juice has to be off when you open a section switch - after all, you'd fry if it weren't, and that might cost them some money - they reckon it can be left on as you walk to the switch...
Details continue to slip out about the Working Reference Manual review, and mangement's slapdash attitude to safety.
The latest to reach Tubeworker's ears is that, apparently, CRIDs (that's Current Rail Indicator Devices for the uninitiated) are only for use during engineering hours or by the...
Well thanks, LUL, for sending us all a nice little booklet about healthy eating. We don't feel in the least bit patronised.
What we'd prefer, though, is reasonable eating times, and access to canteens that sell affordable, nice, healthy food, and enough time to eat and digest it in comfort. Instead...
NEWSFLASH . . . NEWSFLASH . . . NEWSFLASH . . .
ASLEF backs John McDonnell
Train drivers' union ASLEF has voted to back John McDonnell as the next Labour Party leader. Their Executive met this week and voted unanimously to back McDonnell.
ASLEF is the first...
LUL prides itself on its 'Dignity at Work' policy promising you decent toilet facilities - you know, regularly cleaned, enough bog roll, etc.
It's a shame that this policy doesn't seem to extend to the right to relieve yourself free from being nagged about SPADs. Yes, at Morden depot, sit down for...
Today there has been a sudden flurry of '01' codes on ticket gates. It's the code for 'bad data'.
The reason, apparently, is that paper 16/17 photocards are no longer valid, so gates reject the associated Oysters.
It seems that the regulations of the Oyster system change on an almost daily basis -...
Using Oyster - especially with the new punitive charges on people who do not touch in and touch out correctly - relies on a robust system for dealing with service disruption. If someone touches in and makes their way to the platform only to find the service suspended, they have the right to leave...
... or face strike action
It is unpredecented, and sickening, that LUL has left its staff to go through Christmas without giving us our pay rise. As of New Year's Day, the company has owed us the money for nine months.
There is not even any dispute about the amount of the rise, which is agreed at...
Note to Central Line management ... If you justify slashing SAMF jobs at the largest station on your line (Bank) by closing one of its ticket offices, then it stands to reason that when you finally see sense and reopen the office, you have to bring back at least a couple of the jobs you cut...
And now it's time for ... Connect Phase 2! Oh yes it is.
With barely a pause for breath - let alone a chance to assess the numerous things that have gone wrong so far - management are ready to go full steam ahead.
But hey, why worry about the odd problem? Like, for example ...
Season's greetings to all those who relied on District line staff taxis to get home after dead-late turns on Christmas Eve. They spent up to an hour waiting in the dark of the small hours of Christmas Day waiting for cabs that were running well late.
You'd probably have got home quicker hitching a...
The FIR into 2003's Chancery Lane derailment identified deployment of emergency detrainment ladders as one issue of concern. There were also concerns that in the aftermath of the bombings on 7th July last years, the ladders had proved difficult to remove.
One simple way to address this? How about...
Tubeworker has reported previously on the attacks on safety standards coming under the guise of the Working Reference Manual (WRM) review. It comes as no great surprise that while the companies go through the motions of consulting trade union reps, those reps believe that they are not in fact being...
As contractor YJL started work on the floor removal at Bounds Green, station staff were shocked to find their lockers chucked into the back yard, rather than in the promised Portakabin. The lockers were covered by only an unsecured thin nylon tarp, leaving staff to retrieve their uniform in the dark...
Lobby Ken Livingstone to support Rail and Tube cleaners
Monday 8th January 10am, at the Mayor's office, The Queen's Walk, London SE1 2AA - nearest station London Bridge, leave by Tooley...
DLR management and RMT reps have held talks on the pay rise for 2007. So far, two options have been offered:
They are having a laugh. The first option is a pay cut, and the second is just 1% over 3 years!
Unless they improve this...
When LUL won 'train operator of the year', management inserted their short arms into their deep pockets and fished out £20 per staff member for a bit of a do.
Tubeworker hears that these dos have been somewhat patchy across the job. But spare a thought for poor old Arnos Grove group, who amidst a...
A Supervisor at Snaresbrook took a trip to the khazi when something unexpected happened ... a light fitting fell on his head, knocking him out and necessitating a stay in hospital. Apparently, the contractors had used the wrong shaped fixing.
It's no laughing matter, as it becomes more and more...
Late one Sunday evening at the start of this month, a driver pulled into West Ruislip and let his passengers off. He noticed that the train in the opposite platform was closed up and asked its driver why. The answer? There was a suspect suitcase on the train and they were waiting for the bomb squad...
Cleaners working for poverty pay on London Underground will be struggling to make ends meet this Christmas. Working for £5.35 an hour - the pitiful minimum wage - is not enough to meet basic needs in London, let alone the extravagance that this time of year demands.
As well as low pay, cleaners...
Trainee CSAs are working shifts on stations but only being paid 80% of the normal wages. 100% of CSA wages is hardly enough to live on in London - 80% is leaving new recruits really struggling financially.
This seems to be a case of management trying to get work done on the cheap, and exploiting...
Management have a plan to change the rosters for detrainment staff at Willesden Junction and Harrow & Wealdstone, creating periods of the traffic day when station staff will be working alone.
Challenged by union reps to justify why they would put staff at risk of assault like this, LUL laughably...
Readers might remember our report about District Line Control telling station staff to remove 'lost property' from a train - except it wasn't lost property but an unattended bag. Well, we had hoped that following complaints by the station concerned, this unfortunate and unsafe incident would not be...
We have long suspected that management were up to no good with their review of the Working Reference Manual. And as details of their desired rule changes emerge, it seems that we were right. A few examples:
LUL management have compiled an audit of distribution of Operational Standards Notices (OSNs). Although they claim it shows the system to be "robust", further reading reveals that in fact, OSNs aren't getting round to frontline staff nearly as efficiently and effectively as they should.
If this was...
Cockfosters suffered staffing cuts when the shorter working week came in - although a concerted fight by local union activists meant they were much less severe than originally proposed.
But the effects of the cuts have now been made much worse by management inadequacy. A few examples: SAMF duties...
Several stations that appear on the Tube map but are currently run by Silverlink are to be transferred to LUL. Read the linked report for some comments from Ken Lvingstone that are staggeringly hypocritical in light of his plan to privatise the East London line.
Hopefully, this should mean...
TubeLines has announced a cut of one-fifth in the value of its cleaning contract. This can only lead to attacks on cleaners' jobs and already-appalling terms and conditions, and to (even) worse standards of cleaning and therefore of safety.
Here's RMT's press release ...
LONDON UNDERGROUND fat-cat...
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