How to fix the Southern Rail dispute?
Discussion
El stovey said:
Sump said:
gooner1 said:
Sump said:
The easiest solution is to start cutting the employees and heavily invest in automation / wizardry to replace them. There can't be progression if any time we advance someone on minimum wage strikes to hold it back.
Great idea, cut the number of employees, of which there isn't enough of to run the service now, unlessthe staff do overtime.
The government need to be clearer when they let a franchise what that actually means. To run a businsss so critical on say 75% staff to reduce costs and allow overtime is nonsense. Staff, certainly the drivers, get paid quite well and it is archaic to run a business on overtime unless the flow of work is uncertain which it clearly is not here.
We need to take an honest hard look at employment law which over the past few years has swung far to far in favour of the employee. Maybe it is time to legislate to protect core services in such a way as not allowing them to strike, like the police, but that would then have to include some robust mechanisms for dealing with issues and pay progression etc.
We need to take an honest hard look at employment law which over the past few years has swung far to far in favour of the employee. Maybe it is time to legislate to protect core services in such a way as not allowing them to strike, like the police, but that would then have to include some robust mechanisms for dealing with issues and pay progression etc.
Robertj21a said:
The railways need to modernise but, on Southern, the (strong) unions think that safety will be compromised if the safety-critical role of the guard is replaced with an 'On Board Supervisor'. What they have failed to properly explain is how 'Thameslink' have operated the same type of train, on the same lines, without a guard for many years !
Good thread on the rail forum discussing this where a few obviously anti-union types are having their arses handed to them again .Interesting that Chiltern and Scotrail have come to cost-effective and amicable resolutions recently without all this Southern nonsense - perhaps it's just coincidence that neither of them had Grayling deceiving and interfering...
legzr1 said:
loafer123 said:
There will still be a second staff member on the train, they just won't be responsible for opertating the doors.
Will this second member be safety-critical trained?If not, just as much use in an emergency as a member of the public.
Perhaps the union could agree the training that these Customer Service Agents should have, then?
Cotty said:
The Mad Monk said:
valiant said:
No drivers but there is a passenger service agent aboard every dlr train and as we found out a year or two back, if they go on strike there is no dlr.
What about The Waterloo & City Line?legzr1 said:
Interesting that Chiltern and Scotrail have come to cost-effective and amicable resolutions recently without all this Southern nonsense - perhaps it's just coincidence that neither of them had Grayling deceiving and interfering...
Don't know about Chiltern but apparently the Scotrail agreement is that now the driver opens the doors and the guard closes them! Hardly a giant leap into the 21st century.New stock was built as DOO but has had to have guards stations retrofitted at a cost of £5m - to the taxpayer. Cost effective? Hmmm.
Uncle John said:
Thanks for that.Stedman said:
DOO is not suitable to mainline work IMO. It is 'ok' but not ideal in metro areas.
Lots of ignorant bks sprouted here, but lots of proper information 'out there'.
Government wont, or have been refusing up until now, to meet.
But all of the London Overground network has been DOO for years. Thameslink's 12-coach trains use the same track and stations as Southern - and have also been DOO for years.Lots of ignorant bks sprouted here, but lots of proper information 'out there'.
Government wont, or have been refusing up until now, to meet.
Found this article interesting - written by a commuter:
https://medium.com/@xciv/southern-rail-transport-s...
https://medium.com/@xciv/southern-rail-transport-s...
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