Grievance raised by a brother on the subject of higher grade duties

Mr Robert Farley
73 Greenhill Rd
Kettering
Northants
NN15 7LN

Mobile
07843462924

Email
RobertFarley73@aol.com

Dear John

I am writing to you to raise a grievance in connection with the payment of higher grade duty. I know that you personally, at your level, may have little room to help in finding a resolution to it, but it’s the first step in raising it in the grievance procedure.

All of the following relates to Ex-Jarvis staff that came to Amey via Grant Rail.

When a Trackchargeman or Leadingtrackman where away from their normal place of work for some reason. Then the normal practice is that the next person in line, usually determined by seniority, would book the grade of the person they were filling in for in their absence. If that absence was for two hours or more, then they booked and got the higher duty grade for the entire shift. At most this could lead to two people booking HGD, i.e. the regular ganger is away, so the 2nd man (leadingtrackman) books the gangers rate, and because the 2nd man is effectively the ganger now one of the other members of the group books the 2nd mans rate.

Another situation that arose and that led to HGD being booked was when an individual below the grade of a ganger undertook COSS duties. As the particular role of the COSS had developed, recognition for that responsibility hadn’t kept pace. It wasn’t uncommon at one time for a trackman or lower to be undertaking COSS duties and receive absolutely no recompense for the increased burden of responsibility. This fact and the fact that a payment system for anyone undertaking COSS duties hadn’t been sorted resulted in it being raised with Jarvis management, no written agreement was produced that I’m aware of, but it was agreed that staff below the grade of ganger shouldn’t being expected to do COSS duties without some recompense for the increased responsibilities they were undertaking. As a result, a basic arrangement came about, and it became the custom and practice for staff below the grade of ganger to book the gangers rate for COSS duties.

On the subject of booking HGD, on days when there is no work for us to do, what Amey term as non-allocated work. It’s a not a new situation entirely, just that it has a bit of a new wrinkle in it, for some of us it’s not a situation that we have ever been in before, being left at home because there is nothing to do. In the past, we have always turned in, even when they have had nothing specific for us to do. And it’s always been the custom and practice to book HGD, even on days when there has been nothing specific to do. So as I see that one, I cant say there is anything that I’m aware of which says it cant be so, I would say custom and practice has established that if you are required to turn in, then one should book it and get it.

Much of this raise’s the issue that I have mentioned at an earlier point in time, about some individuals having had to book a higher grade for a very long and considerable length of time indeed, because management originally didn’t want to make people up just in order to save a few pound’s. It was an item that had been flagged up but hadn’t been recolved. At Grant Rail there was a different situation entirely, they wanted everyone on their T&C’s, and there it was a case of if you want to go up to the higher equivalent grade then you have to accept their T&C’s. But the down side for the Ex-Jarvis staff was that such a move under Grant Rail was completely untenable, the loss of pay, the loss of holiday entitlement, the loss on the pension, loss of sick pay benefits, increase in the working week, complete loss of any ability in have an influence on how you worked, and a potential monetary loss every time a redundancy situation arose, less favourable terms and conditions in whole meant that the only option Grant offered us was totally and completely unacceptable. So it remained an issue there, which had no possible satisfactory resolution available or in sight. With TUPE to Amey, that situation changed somewhat to a more favourable outcome to an old issue with the possibility of it becoming finally resolved, with management indicating that they were not opposed to staff progressing within the T&C’s that they were on.

Now I appreciate that the current situation means that an immediately solution to that point is unlikely, but when conditions improve in the future. I would hope that a satisfactory resolution can be reached, with positions being advertised, and the fact that some staff had undertaken acting out of grade, and doing those duties for a considerable length of time. That this would be a factor, which would stand heavily in their favour, when considering any staff for that position.


Yours Sincerely
R.I.Farley