RMT
NATIONALUNION OF RAIL, MARITIME AND
TRANSPORT WORKERS
Unity House
39 Chalton Street
London NW1 1JD
17th NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
ENGINEERING GRADES
Final Agenda
Change of Venue
(01/04/14)
Doncaster Catholic Club
Waterdale
Doncaster
DN1 3BY
Thursday 10th & Friday 11th April 2014
Secretary: Alan Cadden
9/6 Magdalene Drive
Edinburgh
EH15 3EB
Scotland
Mobile 07504 233 139
Email: ()
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF ENGINEERING GRADES 2014
PROPOSED CONFERENCE AGENDA
1.Opening of Conference by the Conference President
2.Apologies
3.Welcome by Doncaster Branch Representatives
4.Address by Orgreave Truth & Justice Campaign Geoff Bright
5.Address by(TBC)
6.Conference Secretary Report
7.Endorsement of Balance Sheet
8.Election of Two Auditors
9.Election of two Tellers
10.Election of Standing Orders Committee (five delegates)
11.Executive Committee Eve of Conference Meeting Report
12.Standing Orders Committee Reports
13.Amendments to the Agenda and Final Agenda
14.Conference Resolutions
15.Two Resolutions for the Annual General Meeting - Delegates moving resolutions @ the AGM
16.Address by President Peter Pinkney
17.Address by the Acting General Secretary Mick Cash
18.Address by the Acting Senior Assistant General Secretary
19.Address by General Grades Committee Representative Pat Collins
20.Fringe meeting Learning Developments within NWR Emily King/Owen Herbert
21.Election of Conference Officers and Executive Committee
22.Select a Liaison Committee (3 delegates)
23.Confirm Venues and dates for hosting Conference meetings in 2015 and 2016
24.Vote of Thanks
25.Close of Conference
Here are all the stamped and signed resolutions which the Secretary has received on or before the 14th of February 2014.
Amendments must be stamped and signed to be received by the secretary no later than the 31st of March 2014.
Note: Resolutions received after the cut of date stated in our conference constitution paragraph 8 will not be allowed to go to conference and emergency resolutions are based on recent events after the cut of date.
Regarding some wording in the resolutions and bearing in mind as a grades conference we are consultative and cannot instruct nor make demands to the GGC or the EC.
We must ask the GGC what we want them to do and we have to use phrases like requests, seeks, calls upon & urgently calls on the GGC/EC to raise issues etc.
Amendments
From the Agenda to be shown in this Final Agenda
PROPOSED RESOLUTIONS
1. Bank and Public Holidays
Submitted byEdinburgh and Portobello District Branch
This branch calls on the general grades committee to take up as a matter of urgency the situation of members taking a B&P holiday as part of their allocation under their terms and conditions when working a night shift cycle which they are required to take when on night shift resulting in the member suffering from fatigue when taking up his next turn of duty where the member could well be awake for 21 hours after doing so.
Members who work a dayshift and backshift cycle receive a stand- alone day and this resolution calls for our members who work nights should receive the same.
The branch further believes the secretary needs to raise the matter with network rail to come up with a solution to help resolve the matter.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
2. Network Rail Roster principles/On Call
Submitted byBrighton and Hove City Branch
The rest period between any shifts in the Network Rail roster principles is 12 hours, however for those who are ‘On Call’ there are a number anomalies.
For example 5.3.5
The maximum hours in any week are 48 hours.
5.3.6 The maximum hours in a day are 12hours.
5.3.8 No more than five turns will be roistered in any week.
5.3.10 Rest days, once published can only be altered by agreement with the individual concerned.
5.3.12 the maximum rest interval between any rostered turn of duty will be 12 hours.
However these principles are ridden rough shod over if you are ‘On Call’ and the above list is not exhaustive.
For example
If you do work a rostered 12 hour shift and are called out after that shift has finished then you cannot have a 12 hour rest period.
- You can exceed the maximum 12 hour shift and any extended by call out.
- If you work a normal 7 x 5 shift from 07.30 to 15.00 and called out for example, from 20.00hrs to 24.00hrs you cannot get a 12 hour rest period in before your next shift at 07.30.
- If called out you will exceed the maximum of five turns a week.
- At present a rostered shift cannot be less than 6 hours, however most call outs are an average of 4 hours, which does not constitute a shift and therefore under the roster principles doesn’t seem to need a rest period. We believe this has to change.
- May also exceed the maximum of 10 consecutive shifts.
- Rest days may be interrupted.
- Are ‘call out’ hours included in the 48hrs maximum for a week?
- Is the ORR aware of the hours outside of the roster principles being worked ‘On Call’ and if so what records do they have to monitor those hours?
We need to quantify what defines a shift or a turn of duty, we believe that anything worked over and above the rostered shift ( on call and called out) should count as another shift or turn of duty in respect of qualifying for the 12 hour rest period.?
- We are calling for a proper rest period between any shift working hours. It cannot be right that the minimum rest period between shifts is 12 hours yet if called out after our shift, we could work another 4 to 6 hours and be expected to report for work the following morning at the appropriate start time.
- There is no doubt that being ‘On Call’ can lead to our members working differing shifts, sometimes of a split shift nature which induces fatigue, which is a direct threat to our member health and wellbeing.
- Therefore this engineering conference requests the Council of Executives to put an end to these anomalies and meet with Network Rail as soon as possible within the next 6 months to discuss these principles and highlight the amount of hours being worked by our members to keep our industry running.
- The union should also organise a campaign around ‘On Call’ raising the awareness of the medical problems that arise from working long hours and nights and explaining the correct rest periods. The union should also investigate the amount of hours worked ‘On Call’ that are outside those hours that are rostered, to ascertain just how many extra hours are being worked in the industry.
The union should also organise a campaign around ‘On Call’ raising the awareness of the medical problems that arise from working long hours and nights and explaining the correct rest periods. The union should also investigate the amount of hours worked ‘On Call’ that are outside those hours that are rostered, to ascertain just how many extra hours are being worked in the industry.
The union also needs to challenge Network Rail to produce records of how ‘On Call’ is being monitored and what registered records are kept to ascertain the amount of hours worked ‘On Call’ also, how and what ‘On Call’ it is being used for and if it is being misused or misinterpreted by the various IFC’s prior to the transfer to Network Rail, and ascertain if there is a national position for how ‘On Call is operated?
For those ‘on call’ we therefore believe we need to cap the number of call outs in any one week to a maximum. For example, two call outs in any five shifts.
We need to re-think what constitutes a call out? i.e. Is it after your ordinary shift finishes, or a continuation of your shift? If on nights can you be called out through the day? If so surely our members need a proper rest period.
Conference believes that if you are ‘On Call’ the correct rest periods should be built into the roster for the following day or night and you should have the 12 hour rest before you continue your next shift. For example if called out and your call out period encroaches on the start of the next shift then the 12 hour rest period should come into force and members should not start their next shift until they have completed the 12 hour rest period.
It is ridiculous that hours worked on call outs are not counted as part of the overall hours worked. It makes a mockery of the roster principles.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
3. Equality Reps
Submitted byEdinburgh and Portobello District Branch
This conference calls on the general secretary to formulate and develop a structure and training course for the new elected equality reps who have been recently elected this should not be driven by Network rail which has been happening lately.
The union needs to hold a discussion and explain what involvement in the working party it has and what basis of it which has never been explained to the reps that came forward.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
4. Robust reporting back system in place for resolutions
Submitted byEdinburgh and Portobello District Branch
Conference is alarmed at the length of time it takes to address resolutions debated and agreed at conferences.
Each year delegates send two (2) resolutions to the governing body of our union which some come policy of our union. Conference demands that the executive take the business of the engineering conference more seriously and ask for a more robust reporting back system are adopted by the general grades committee and officers who have responsibilities to our conference.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
5. Terms and conditions for Competencies and Responsibilities for different rates of pay
Submitted byLiverpool No 5 Branch
A unfair situation exists within the Network Rail maintenance organisation. Under former Jarvis T/Cs, the track (P Way) staff grades were Track Charge man, Leading Track man and Track man. Within those grades there are a further three tiers of grades Basic, Cat 1 and Cat 2. These all have three different rates of pay. Then just prior to Phase 2b/c all grades nationally were changed to Team Leader, Technician and operative and those grades had competencies associated with them (competency matrix).
> This branch believes it is unfair that staff within the same grade can be expected to hold the same competencies and the same responsibilities on the same Terms & Conditions but on different rates of pay. This branch requests that this Union approaches Network Rail in regard to getting one rate of pay for the current grades and it too based on the former Cat 2 rate of pay. The higher rate of pay out of the three.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
6 .Changes to payroll processing within Network rail
Submitted byNorth Wales Coast Branch
Not knowing what all the new pay codes are is causing confusion as well as the issue of when overtime payments are made.
North Wales Coast branch resolution requires Network rail supply the full list of codes used on payslips, pay and deductions to enable members to have a clearer understanding of the new payslips and less need to query their pay
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
7. Cross-discipline working and multi-skilling working
Submitted byDoncasterBranch
That this Branch is greatly concerned at repeated attempts by Network Rail to force through the “back door” cross-discipline and multi-skilled working for our infrastructure grades members.
Further, this Branch notes that apart from where it currently existed (e.g. S&T Point Care Teams) the practice of cross-discipline working and multi-skilling was withdrawn from the Phase 2B/C document during consultation.
Accordingly, Doncaster Branch calls upon our 2014 Engineering Grades Conference to support the sentiments in this resolution and request that our General Grades Committee instruct the General Secretary to inform Network Rail that this union will resist all attempts to bring in cross-discipline or multi-skilled working for our Network Rail infrastructure members.
Doncaster Branch further calls upon our 2014 Engineering Grades Conference to send this resolution to our 2014 Annual General Meeting.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
8. Labour only sub-contractors, in particular the use of zero-hours contractors
Submitted byDoncasterBranch
That this Branch is greatly concerned at the rising use of labour only sub-contractors, in particular the use of zero-hours contractors within the railway infrastructure industry.
Doncaster Branch calls upon the support of our 2014 Engineering Grades Conference to adopt the following:
That this 2014 Engineering Grades Conference requests the General Grades Committee instruct the General Secretary to write a personal letter to all of our Area/Company Council Representatives and our Full-Time Co-ordinators (where appropriate) within the infrastructure maintenance companies, to insist that they ensure that the use of labour only sub-contractors, in particular zero-hours contractors is placed as a standing agenda item at future area/company council meetings, until further advised.
Further, we call upon the General Grades Committee to instruct the General Secretary to request quarterly reports from all infrastructure maintenance area/company councils in order that this union can see the full extent of the problem.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
9. Resolution no compulsory redundancy agreement
Submitted byEdinburgh and Portobello DistrictBranch
This branch calls upon the general grades committee in conjunction with the general secretary to put measurers in place to address the continued threat to the members covered by this conference by Network rail under the no compulsory agreement.
In Scotland we have seen the vacancy gap reach over 11% and since 2005 manpower has dropped 25% in the route.
Network rail in Scotland could not have a compulsory redundant situation as we are vastly under staffed.
This branch further believes Network rail are using it as a ploy to create uncertainty which establishes an unhealthy environment and will certainly be used as a bargaining point to bring in other changes to terms and conditions.
The measurers to be put in place should form the same length as the financial control period along with an immediate approach needs to be made to NWR much earlier than the previous 2 years.
These measures are to be highlighted within the grades represented at conference.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
PROPOSED EMERGENCY RESOLUTIONS
- Emergency Resolution for Engineering Conference 2014
Survey walking over ballast
Submitted byEdinburgh and Portobello District Branch
This branch calls on the general grades committee to reissue the ballast questionnaire to determine more detailed survey from members and former members covered by this conference. The questionnaire sent out as part of the RMT news delivery in January, does not ask for enough information from anyone who may complete it.
The re-issue should ask name, grade, location, ballast condition of ELR within 4ft in delivery unit or section and how many miles/yards walked per roster shift (140 hrs. per month) members to provide photo evidence where possible.
Conference would like to register its disappointment in the length of time and content of the questionnaire produced at addressing the important issue of walking over ballast.
Furthermore conference applauds the questionnaire sent out recently on the question of exposure to diesel fumes to members,and this conference asks for a similar approach in sending survey with circular explaining the situation in using branches,online to highlight.
The aim of the resolution is to gather the information from the membership collected and consult an occupational specialist who specializes in walking conditions and musculoskeletal disorders as a result.
Branches and this conference to be kept updated on the progress on the resolution.
Moved by Seconded by
Votes For Against Abstentions Carried Unanimously
2. THREE MAN S&T TEAMS
Submitted byPerth No 1 Branch
Conference Perth no 1branch members in the S&T department are disgusted at the way that the management are reducing maintenance and faulting teams down to two man teams. Although we have a “no redundancy agreement” with Network Rail the reality is that they are operating a stealth exercise of not filling vacancies and reducing the work force down to unsafe working team levels.
As maintenance and faulting department we are told that everything is RISK
assessed by the local manager, how can a manager risk assess anything from his bed when a team is out on a night shift no one knows what will come along so they cannot possible assess any job.