It is time to speak out

[severe_delays]

Today has been a day of dancing and madness at the Delays hovel. And also a day of jaws hitting floors so often that I've had to get my handlamp out to scour under the furniture for those that detached and rolled away. Why such expressions of joy? Because London Underground managers have been found to be idiots, conspirators, lawbreakers and such

Comments

[mathcathy]

This sounds like a really good reason to strike

[severe_delays]

LUL has no moral or legal right to sack anyone for being in a protected legal class. The strike is about more than a "mere" two jobs. And the strike need not go ahead. London Underground have refused to engage in reinstating the "mere" two employees.

[severe_delays]

Sort of. In all honesty I'd prefer it that we didn't strike, the victimised staff got their jobs back and those who have perpetrated this were disciplined for illegal activity and bringing the company into disrepute. I know this won't happen as the sort of behaviour shown by the managers here is all too common within London Underground. It's a strange situation where they've clearly broken the law yet they'll face very little in the way of penalty and will be free to do so again.

[ext_363570]

Ah, yes, this must be that strike we were informed of in college yesterday that's occurring slap-bang in the middle of the A-level exams period, potentially causing enormous difficulties for mostly poorer students who live further afield and are relying on the Tube to turn up to the exam hall strictly at 9:00am or face being disqualified from the exam, hence losing any chance of getting into university or employment. But, no, you go right on ahead and complain about two sacked drivers.

[severe_delays]

We will, thankyou. You see, the law is not to be ignored merely because it is inconvenient.

Incidentally, before I worked for TfL I had to get to exams through a strike. I managed it. Mostly by getting up early and taking the bus. When I was doing A levels the local education authority routinely scheduled some exams on a public holiday. Buses ran every hour from my small town. I needed two buses to get into college so I had to leave three hours early so as to get a connecting bus. Sometimes there is inconvenience in life. You'll be fine. Good luck with your exams and future plans.

[nelsolidarida]

If the universities keep getting screwed over you'll have to deal with strikes fairly often once you get there...

[sixtine]

Mmmm. I'm in two minds. I certianly do not believe that a company should be forced to reinstate an unfairly dismissed employee following a difficult ET. One could argue that there ensues a complete breach of trust and confidence in the relationship which means that all other contractual terms fall away. It's an implied common law term; the psychological contract is too badly damaged.

Can you have a cost benefit decision? In theory, yes. But the costs are, in this case, so high that I do not believe someone has made a clinical decision to dismiss on that basis. Given the stringency of the ORR requirements and what you describe above, it may not have been unreasonable that serious disciplinary action was taken. Without knowing the case, it's hard to make a comment.

[sixtine]

You are forgiven as requested. Hard is not impossible....

Mmmm, ET's a bit of a mixed bag. The result can depend on the sympathies of the decision makers, who can be quite partisan. It depends how good your solicitors are and, most frustratingly of all, it depends on a whole bundle of administrative technicalities. A claimant or respondant can have behaved immaculately well in practice but not have recorded everything in an appropriate manner and *ping* lost case.

If an ET found in favour and made an award for unfair dismissal, the award would not only include the statutory element, it would include a compensatory award based on the expected loss of future earnings in the current economic climate at the actual net salary of the claimant. That could be a year's net salary....

[romalamadingdo]

Reading the full judgement in Eamonn's case and the interim judgement in Arwen's, yes, they have been sacked for trade union activities. This is illegal for good reason. The reason why the strike action is necessary is because LUL and other employers will otherwise be left free to deliberately and cynically act ILLEGALLY, so long as they decide that they can afford a compensation award. This is the cost/benefit calculation that severe delays is talking about. The tribunal can't force reinstatement so the strike action is the only answer.

[severe_delays]

But that does not take away from the fact that London Underground acted illegally and may continue to do so, so long as they are happy to pay the penalties. This is by no means the only case of London Underground behaving in a way which is illegal.

As to whether he deserved some sort of disciplinary action, absolutely! But that offence does not merit sacking and I've never heard of anyone sacked for that sole offence. The judge makes it clear that he did not believe that Eammon was sacked because he made an error. The evidence was that he was sacked because he was a trade union rep and the charges brought against him were used to do that. Ask yourself this: If it was such a serious offence that a person should be sacked for it then why did the person ordering the action receive no penalty? If it is so bad then both should have been sacked. Instead the judge agreed that there had been duplicity in protecting the Line Controller in order to sack the trade unionist.

[aster13]

Thank you for posting this. I am often aware there are things happening "behind the scenes" which motivate strikes, but without full knowledge of them

[severe_delays]

Sadly, this is by no means the only occasion where individuals within LUL have committed acts of this nature. The usual tactic is to deny that there is a problem until those involved get tired and give up. It's good to see that the judge has not believed the lies and denials. There are times when it is very scary working for this company