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Rail men expected to approve Amey's changes
00:00 23 Sep 1998
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by John Leitch
Voting finishes today amongst Amey's 1,800 railway maintenance workers who are members of the RMT trade union. It is expected that they will vote to accept Amey's proposed changes in working conditions. RMT leaders have urged acceptance.
Three other contractors have final offers on the table. Those made by Balfour Beatty and Jarvis are being voted on - the closing date for voting by Balfour employees is 1 October, with the Jarvis deadline a week later, 8 October. The RMT executive is recommending that both offers be rejected.
Amec has put its final package direct to individual employees and a number have already accepted. The RMT has made no reaction to Amec's strategy, its policy being to sit back and watch what develops.
The RMT trade union and GTRM are still talking about GTRM's national offer (Tarmac has a 50 per cent stake in GTRM). However, the union's 20 members based at Euston have already voted to go on all-out strike from Friday (25 September) until 10pm the following Monday in support for Steve Hedley who was sacked recently.
An RMT spokesman said: "Hedley is a well-known activist, a pain in the side of management. They sacked him over a trumped-up charge and we won't conclude an agreement until he is reinstated."
Mike Casebourne, managing director of GTRM, is unperturbed. A spokeswoman said: "We are suffering neither from a strike nor an overtime ban. We have no dispute."
In all, 12,000 RMT trade union members are involved in railway maintenance work. Contractors who bought railway maintenance and track renewal businesses during the privatisation of British Rail were Amec, Amey, Balfour Beatty, Jarvis and Tarmac. In Scotland, a management buyout led to the formation of First Engineering, currently thought to be the subject of a take-over bid from Amey.
RMT leaders had called for a continuous overtime ban plus an end of voluntary nightwork from Thursday 10 September for its members who work for Jarvis, Centrac (a Tarmac subsidiary) and Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance.
Speaking this week, Bernard Westerbrook, human resources director at Jarvis, said: "The RMT suspended industrial action while our trade union employees have a ballot. We have 2,500 RMT members which represents 50 per cent of our trackside employees."
The RMT's top brass might not like Jarvis's offer, but Westerbrook claimed that Jarvis's employees were unlikely to follow their leaders' advice.
Voting finishes today amongst Amey's 1,800 railway maintenance workers who are members of the RMT trade union. It is expected that they will vote to accept Amey's proposed changes in working conditions. RMT leaders have urged acceptance.
Three other contractors have final offers on the table. Those made by Balfour Beatty and Jarvis are being voted on - the closing date for voting by Balfour employees is 1 October, with the Jarvis deadline a week later, 8 October. The RMT executive is recommending that both offers be rejected.
Amec has put its final package direct to individual employees and a number have already accepted. The RMT has made no reaction to Amec's strategy, its policy being to sit back and watch what develops.
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The RMT trade union and GTRM are still talking about GTRM's national offer (Tarmac has a 50 per cent stake in GTRM). However, the union's 20 members based at Euston have already voted to go on all-out strike from Friday (25 September) until 10pm the following Monday in support for Steve Hedley who was sacked recently.
An RMT spokesman said: "Hedley is a well-known activist, a pain in the side of management. They sacked him over a trumped-up charge and we won't conclude an agreement until he is reinstated."
Mike Casebourne, managing director of GTRM, is unperturbed. A spokeswoman said: "We are suffering neither from a strike nor an overtime ban. We have no dispute."
In all, 12,000 RMT trade union members are involved in railway maintenance work. Contractors who bought railway maintenance and track renewal businesses during the privatisation of British Rail were Amec, Amey, Balfour Beatty, Jarvis and Tarmac. In Scotland, a management buyout led to the formation of First Engineering, currently thought to be the subject of a take-over bid from Amey.
RMT leaders had called for a continuous overtime ban plus an end of voluntary nightwork from Thursday 10 September for its members who work for Jarvis, Centrac (a Tarmac subsidiary) and Balfour Beatty Rail Maintenance.
Speaking this week, Bernard Westerbrook, human resources director at Jarvis, said: "The RMT suspended industrial action while our trade union employees have a ballot. We have 2,500 RMT members which represents 50 per cent of our trackside employees."
The RMT's top brass might not like Jarvis's offer, but Westerbrook claimed that Jarvis's employees were unlikely to follow their leaders' advice.
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