RMT and SWR again fail to reach agreement

Talks to end strike action by RMT members on South Western Railway ended in confusion on July 31, with both sides blaming each other.

The union is striking on eight days across the summer, over the future role of guards. The latest talks were held via conciliation service ACAS, and followed two days of strike action on July 26/28, with more due to take place on July 31 and August 4 (as this issue of RAIL went to press). More action has been planned for August 11/18/31 and September 1.

The day started with the union announcing it had written to the Office of Rail and Road, highlighting what it called “fundamental and dangerous safety abuses” it said had happened on recent SWR strike days. It claimed these were the result of the operator paying volunteers to “act up as guards regardless of the risks to the travelling public”.

Its complaints included the start signal being triggered by staff on red signals at Raynes Park, Twickenham, St Margarets and Effingham Junction, selective door operation not being applied at both Swaythling and Clapham Junction with doors released off the platform, doors released after a driver stopped short at Overton station, and passengers left to lift a wheelchair onto a train at Strawberry Hill.

At the start of July 31, RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said the union was entering talks through ACAS “in good faith with the objective of reaching a solution that underpins the guard guarantee on South Western Railway in the same way that we have negotiated settlements with other train operating companies”.

Later that day, SWR announced talks had ended, stating it was disappointed that talks had failed to reach a solution.

In a statement, the operator said: “We had hoped that by mirroring the wording of the agreement reached recently with Greater Anglia we could end this damaging dispute for the sake of our passengers and employees.

“However, the RMT has refused to accept on SWR what they have accepted on Greater Anglia. Despite again giving assurances that we will roster a guard on all our services, including the new suburban fleet to be introduced in 2019, the union refused to agree to some flexibility during disruption as they have agreed with Greater Anglia.”

In response, Cash said: “The statement from SWR does not represent what we were told when talks broke up this afternoon. As far as RMT is concerned the talks process remains live and the company were going back to their bosses in Aberdeen and Hong Kong to consider the main outstanding issues on the guard guarantee and the union proposals for a resolution to the dispute.

“RMT remains available for further talks over the coming days and into the weekend, and we expect the company to be available as well and to adhere to the next stages of the process as agreed with them this afternoon.”

The GA deal was resolved following a turnout of 80% of union members, who voted with a majority of nine to one to accept an offer made by GA that the RMT claims guarantees the role of the guard and halts the extension of Driver Only Operation ( RAIL 858).