Category: Health and Safety

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RMT Asbestos Questionaire

It is important to remember that not everyone who has been exposed to asbestos develops an asbestos related disease, and that the development of a serious illness as a result of exposure to asbestos is rare. However, for those who do develop a disease, the effects can be devastating.

 

Recording information about exposure on a database will enable RMT and its solicitors to help those who wish to make a claim in the future by speeding up the process of obtaining compensation.

 

If you believe you have been exposed to asbestos in your current or a former workplace anywhere in the UK and at any time in the place no matter how long ago, you should complete the Asbestos Exposure Questionnaire.

 

Alternatively you can have a form sent to you by calling the

 

Thompsons helpline on 0800 587 7516.

Post the completed form to:

‘Asbestos’

RMT Questionnaire

Thompson’s Solicitors

23 Princess Street

Manchester

M2 4ER

 

Please note that you cannot fill in this form online.

 

Members who registered their details on the previous RMT asbestos register can be assured that their information will be retained.

 

If you are not sure if you did register your details, please do so again now.

 

Asbestos Questionaire

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CORONAVIRUS – COVID-19 – USEFUL ADVICE

CORONAVIRUS – COVID-19 – USEFUL ADVICE

 

I attach, for your information, the following documents:

 

  • The World Health Organisation document “Getting your workplace ready for COVID-19”

 

  • The International Association of Public Transport document “Management of COVID-19: Guidelines for Public Transport Operators”

 

  • Network Rail’s “Healthy Hour” pack, which contains links to advice for critical locations when responding to a potential case of COVID-19 among colleagues and a daily updated list of specified countries within Category 1 and Category 2.

 

It is advised that travellers returning from category 1 countries specified by Public Health England (PHE) since 19th February 2020 should immediately self-isolate at home, even if not symptomatic, and call NHS 111 (known as NHS 24 in Scotland) to find out what to do next. They should inform their line manager by telephone or email ASAP to discuss this.

 

It is advised that travellers from category 2 countries specified by PHE since 19th February 2020, do not need to immediately self-isolate. However, it is recommended they have a conversation with their line manager and subject to role/location, local consideration be given to whether they should return to work. If they develop any symptoms, they should self-isolate at home and call NHS 111.

 

Please make the contents of this Circular available to all appropriate members.

 

00052 Coronavirus – COVID-19 – useful documents

 

Corona Virus_EN

 

Coronavirus Healthy Hour pack

 

getting-workplace-ready-for-covid-19.pdf (003)

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RMT says London Mayor’s coronavirus transport cleaning announcement is completely inadequate

RMT says London Mayor’s coronavirus transport cleaning announcement is completely inadequate

 

TUBE UNION RMT says that the London Mayor’s coronavirus transport cleaning announcement today is completely inadequate and calls into question the decision to privatise tube cleaning.

 

Responding to Mayor Sadiq Khan’s statement, RMT General Mick Cash said:

 

“The New York subway, where cleaning is done by directly employed staff in the public sector, will be deep-cleaned every three days, according to a recent announcement.

 

“In contrast, what the Mayor of London has announced looks significantly less than that and our worry is that he’s being limited in what he can do because London Underground’s cleaning is outsourced.

 

“That’s why RMT has written to the Mayor seeking assurances that the decision to privatise tube cleaning is not compromising passenger safety.

 

“It would also be completely unacceptable if the privatised tube cleaning company ABM were to profit out of this crisis and this whole episode confirms once again that like New York, Tube cleaning in London needs to be taking into public ownership.”

 

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Mental Health Awareness

 

MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

 

The following resolution was carried at the AGM 2019:

 

Leeds City believes that the RMT should place pressure and influence on those companies that do not currently sign up to the above to do so, and, implement a procedure within their company that will recognise and offer help and support any of our members who are suffering from mental health issues.

 

It is our belief that all companies should sign up, and adhere to, the rules and principles of mental health awareness at a time when mental health issues appear to be increasing within the workforces of many companies.

 

By not signing up to these principles they are denying our member an avenue and the facilities to get help with their problems.  This often leads to employees saying nothing to anyone about their issues.  Often until it is too late.

 

No caring company should have any problem with signing up to this as the benefits are two-fold, helping their employees, our members, stay healthy in both body and mind results in a workforce that does not take time off sick attending work on a regular basis.

 

At their meeting of 26th September 2019, the National Executive Committee noted the following report of their Health and Safety Sub-committee:

 

We instruct the General Secretary to merge this file with the main Mental Health file and further instruct the General Secretary to take this matter up in line with the resolution.

 

Branches and Regional Councils to be informed.

 

I am acting in accordance with these instructions. Please make the contents of this circular available to all appropriate members.

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Human Waste on the Tracks

RMT appalled and disgusted as Government and train companies break promises over excrement on tracks
 
RAIL UNION RMT said today that revelations that train companies have reneged on a pledge to eliminate the dumping of excrement on the railway by the end of this year shows that profit is more important to them than the rail workers who will continue to who have to work in disgusting unsanitary conditions amongst the raw sewage.
In 2017 the Department for Transport said that by the end of 2019 all franchises would compel firms to ensure trains had modern toilets, this was also confirmed in Network Rail’s strategic business plan.
 
It has now emerged that several train companies have applied for exemptions. East Midlands Trains have been given permission to continue to dump sewage on the track from fast trains running between London St Pancras to Nottingham and Sheffield. Other companies still understood to be operating trains that dump excrement on tracks include Northern, West Midlands, Scotrail and Transport for Wales.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
“Our members were promised that this year would see the end of the filthy and disgusting practice of dumping raw sewage on Britain’s railways, a practice which sees track workers routinely sprayed with human excrement and fleet staff left to scrape it off the bottom of trains.
“The pledge to end the practice was hard won by RMT and the fact that it has been reneged on shows the utter contempt that the rail companies have for rail workers.
“The blame for this broken promise, which means the continuation of this disgraceful practice that shames Britain’s railways, lies at the door of the greedy train companies, and their reluctance to retro-fit tanks due to cost, and this Government and their appalling attitude to the staff who work in the transport industry. 
“In the run-up to the general election RMT will be making an issue of this shameful Government sanctioned practice and there will be no let-up in RMT’s campaign to bring the dumping of raw sewage on the tracks to an end as soon as  possible.”
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Workers’ Memorial Day 2019

Dear Colleague

 

Workers’ Memorial Day takes place every year on 28 April. The purpose behind the day is to ‘remember the dead: fight for the living’ and events or memorial services to remember people killed through work will take place up and down the country.

Every year more people are killed at work than in wars. Most don’t die of mystery ailments, or in tragic “accidents”. They die because an employer decided their safety just wasn’t that important a priority.

 

Workers’ Memorial Day (WMD) commemorates those workers.

In 2019 International Workers Memorial Day will have the theme “dangerous substances – get them out of the workplace”. The focus was mainly on carcinogens but you could adapt the theme to whatever is most relevant in your workplace or area, as many substances can also cause illnesses such as asthma or dermatitis.
Two important issues are of course asbestos and diesel exhaust, Good health and safety for all workers whoever they are and will focus on inequalities in occupational health and the role unions play in narrowing the inequalities gap.

 

Find an event near you

 

See a full list of events at:

 

https://www.tuc.org.uk/workers-memorial-day-0

to find out what’s happening in your area. If you are organising an event for Workers Memorial Day and would like it displayed on these pages, then please email through the details to [email protected].

 

Resources

For resources on Workers Memorial day including ribbons and car stickers please contact the Greater Manchester Hazards Centre at:

 

[email protected]. http://28april.org/

 

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SOO Waivers: Electrocuting PWT’s

It has come to the attention that LUL are looking at ways to cut back on safety to enable trains to run in the event of an over run of engineering works during engineering hours by using trains to do line searches rather than people. This would be in the event that a PWT-EH has ‘not cleared the road’.

 

RMT Members already do a great job, in often difficult conditions, with regards to making sure people complete their journeys everyday, however, this will not be over the electrocuted bodies of our track workers.

 

 

It is obvious to most people that doing this would involve turning the traction current back on and potentially electrocuting staff working on the track. The thought of a train coming through a tunnel itself is enough to scare the living daylights out of most people.

 

To be clear on this matter, the RMT will not accept our members lives being put at risk in this manner and have notified LUL that we will not shy away from balloting all our members that access the track in every company we have members if necessary.

 

We are happy to work on ways that allow members to communicate better and remain available for further talks.

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SOO Waivers

Many of you will know that we have had serious concerns with LULs wildly dangerous interpretation of the SOO waiver process .

 

This ended up as a compliant to the ORR .

 

There have been some developments which robustly back up our argument on the criteria of the waiver.

 

The ORR have stated the following in correspondence with LUL ( see below ) .

 

* waivers must be issued on safety grounds .

* waivers must be issued if the rule being waived is less safe than the waiver

* waivers can’t be issued on the grounds of reputational damage

* waivers can’t be issued on the grounds of customer service.

 

There is still work to be done on the issue of waivers and stations CCEP which us and TSSA are currently putting together .

 

Attached is the letter from LUL in response .  They are evidently not happy and are looking to fight it .

 

We will be writing to the director of safety in the next 24 hours , setting out our position in light of the ORR.

 

Many of you will know that we have had serious concerns with LULs wildly dangerous interpretation of the SOO waiver process .

 

This ended up as a compliant to the ORR .

 

There have been some developments which robustly back up our argument on the criteria of the waiver.

 

The ORR have stated the following in correspondence with LUL

 

* waivers must be issued on safety grounds .

* waivers must be issued if the rule being waived is less safe than the waiver

* waivers can’t be issued on the grounds of reputational damage * waivers can’t be issued on the grounds of customer service.

 

There is still work to be done on the issue of waivers and stations CCEP which us and TSSA are currently putting together .

 

Attached is the letter from LUL in response .  They are evidently not happy and are looking to fight it .

 

We will be writing to the director of safety in the next 24 hours , setting out our position in light of the ORR and will cover this for all functions . John – I will send this to you first .

 

 

ORR SOO Waiver August 2018

 

 

 

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HOT WEATHER

HOT WEATHER

 

Following on from a consistent period of high temperature and lack of rainfall the Met Office yesterday issued a weather warning:

 

https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/public/weather/heat-health/#?tab=heatHealth

 

The advice given by the Met Office in their amber warning is as follows:

 

“Advice: Stay out of the sun. Keep your home as cool as possible – shading windows and shutting them during the day may help. Open them when it is cooler at night. Keep drinking fluids. If there’s anybody you know, for example an older person living on their own, who might be at special risk, make sure they know what to do.

 

Advice on how to reduce the risk either for yourself or somebody you know can be obtained from NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk/summerhealth, NHS 111 or from your local chemist.”

 

Clearly while the Met Office advice is mainly offered to vulnerable members of the community it also has implications for workers required to be out of doors during such weather. There is no maximum workplace temperature for workers in this country (although one exists for the transport of livestock). RMT have for many years been campaigning for maximum workplace temperatures and have produced a policy document outlining our demands (see attached document).

 

I will be instructing Regional Officers to ensure our policy is followed by the employers.

 

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RMT hits back at Government-appointed ORR

General Secretary Mick Cash said.

“The Office of Road and Rail are claiming to be an independent safety body when in fact they are a department of the government made up of Tory appointees and funded by the transport industry.

“Despite their own reports highlighting over 20 serious safety failures they claim that, with remedial action, Driver Only Operation can be made safe .

“Any other industry that had over 20 serious safety failures would be put under special measures immediately but with the government itself pushing Driver Only Operation it is no surprise to us that this whitewash of a report has appeared on the eve of a strike.

“The ORR didn’t even have the decency to speak to the RMT when compiling their report  to get the workforce side of events and instead concentrated only on the opening of doors and not on the far wider guards role of evacuating a train during an accident, fire or terrorist incident and a suite of other safety competencies.

“The recent derailment at Watford, where the guard evacuated the train alone, has been completely ignored which shows what a servile shambles the ORR really is.‎ RMT will continue to fight for rail safety despite this coordinated attack from Government, their wholly-owned regulators and the rip-off train companies.”

Cash added;

“The ORR should also state that the orthodox train despatch with a conductor/guard is a safe method tried and tested and used in 70% of the railway network and Southern will continue to use it on their network with the authority of the ORR.”

“The  ORR, DfT and Southern want to confine this issue to doors and train despatch yet the role of the conductor/guard ensures a superior and safer method of working as it ensures a second safety critical person on-board to deal with a range of safety issues such as driver incapacity, evacuations, traction current isolations. Coordination of emergency services protection of the train and a whole range of issue including passenger assistance and accessibility.

“Any settlement of this dispute or consideration of the development of safe train operations must fully encompass this agenda and cannot be be based on the dilution of the safe operation of trains in the interest of company profits and the government’s anti-union agenda.”

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Update on the Section 15 Dispute

 Update on the Section 15 Dispute

Section 15 possessions are now a thing of the past. This is because over last year or so, local RMT H&S reps have successfully negotiated with LU management to completely withdraw Section 15  and replaced it with a Possession Code of Practice to work in all possessions on London Underground.

Final discussions on a new way of taking possessions in Engineering Hours are in the final steps of allowing LU to introduce this new, safer possession.

The RMT have also been involved in the rewriting of Possession Rule Books 14 & 15 and once agreed, the new rule books will be introduced sometime in the New Year.

Let’s be clear of what has happened of the past year, in regards to the section 15 dispute, LU management have been forced to listen and work with the RMT on this serious matter. This was not for political gain, not for financial gain, but for the safety and welfare of not only the RMT members but the safety of all people that work on the track.

Your strength and perseverance and our determination to make a safe working environment, we believe, will significantly address the issues that caused this dispute and we truly believe that someone would have been killed if we had not taken action. The fight for your safety continues and we must not drop our guard.

Unity is Strength

update-on-the-section-15-dispute

 

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Tube Overcrowding Projections

Mick Cash, RMT General Secretary, said;

“These projections are truly terrifying and require urgent action if we are to avoid a lethal cocktail of gridlock and extreme passenger danger right across the tube network.  Stations and platforms are already being closed on a routine basis on the quiet and those emergency measures are set to become commonplace.

“Anyone who has used major hubs like Kings Cross, Victoria and Oxford Circus at peak times knows that capacity on trains, platforms and escalators is already at breaking point and it is simply pure luck that there hasn’t been a major disaster. The risks to passengers at the Platform/Train interface are growing by the day.

“Axing station staff jobs against this background is criminally irresponsible and RMT ‎is calling on the new Mayor Sadiq Khan to reverse the cuts and to instruct his officials to start taking the union safety warnings seriously.

“These surging passenger numbers are compromising safety on both tube and mainline rail services and hacking back on safety-critical staff represents a lethal gamble by those calling the shots. Those cuts must be reversed before we have a major tragedy on our hands. ”

 

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