Members of the RMT rail union working in the control room of Docklands Light
Railway will strike for 24 hours from 13:05 on Monday, February 2, in a dispute
over the imposition of new weekend rosters.
In the ballot held in December, control-room staff members voted by 20
to two for strike action and by 21 to one for industrial action short of a
strike after Serco Docklands unilaterally decided to replace 12-hour weekend
shifts with eight-hour duties, thus depriving around 30 staff of 24 rest days a
year.
The union suspended an earlier threat of a work-to-rule held after the
company withdrew the disputed roster, but talks held since have failed to break
the deadlock, prompting the union to press ahead with plans to ballot all its
more than 350 members at Serco Docklands.
“Hopes that the dispute would be settled were raised when the company
withdrew the disputed roster at the New Year, but those hopes have evaporated
because the company has been stonewalling ever since,” RMT general secretary
Bob Crow said today.
“We lifted our work-to-rule to enable talks to take place and our reps put
up a counter-proposal that would have satisfied every one of the company’s
concerns, but the company’s intransigence has left us no nearer reaching
agreement.
“The company’s proposal to replace 12-hour weekend shifts with eight-hour
turns is an attack on our members’ work-life balance that will cost them 24
rest days a year, and to suggest the move is motivated by safety concerns turns
reason on its head.
“The union will also now proceed with plans to ballot all RMT members at
Serco Docklands for action, as the threat of imposed conditions hangs over
everyone,” he concluded.
