RMT demands legal action against Network Rail.

Union renews call to stop jobs cull as Inspector casts doubt on all routes

BRITAIN'S BIGGEST rail union today demanded urgent action against Network Rail to halt the slide of safety standards as an improvement notice served on the company highlighted "systemic" failings in its track-work safety regime which could affect all routes.

RMT – which is balloting 12,000 track staff over safety and job cuts – renewed its call for an immediate halt in a planned cull of 1,500 safety-critical rail-maintenance jobs and urged the Railways Inspectorate to take action against NR management at the highest level.

The improvement notice, issued by Railways Inspector Liesel von Metz on February 23, concerns lines between Cardiff Central and the Valleys and fleshes out a prohibition notice served earlier in the month, but it raises the prospect that "similar failings may be present in other Maintenance Delivery Units across all routes".

The notices pinpoint a shortage of lookouts to ensure safe track working which the inspector says amount to breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act and railway safety regulations.

"Network Rail bosses are presiding over a cost-driven dismantling of railway safety culture and it is time that they were stopped," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

"It is scandalous that senior executives are being paid telephone-number bonuses for overseeing cuts that are leaving safety systems in tatters and putting our members and the public in danger.

"We know that maintenance teams are already overstretched and under-resourced, that the inspection regime was slated by the inquiry into the Grayrigg crash, and yet they want to sack 1,500 track workers and water down safety systems.

"When the Inspectorate is finding such fundamental faults it is time to call Network Rail's management to account, and if there are breaches of the law they should be in court facing charges.

"We have evidence of cuts in essential inspections and maintenance works the length and breadth of the country that mirror the situation in South Wales.

"When something goes wrong it is our members who are in the danger zone and we cannot wait for another tragedy like Tebay, in which four of our members were killed, before something is done," Bob Crow said.

ends – contacts and notes follow

For further information please contact Derek Kotz on 020 7529 8803 or 07939 595 092

Notes to editors: The improvement notice, number 1/302466657, issued on February 23, says that NR, on lines between Cardiff Central and Rhymney, Treherbert, Aberdare and Merthyr Tydfill, as an employer has contravened (and is likely to continue contravening) the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 Regulation 5(1); the Railways and Other Guided Transport Systems (safety) Regulations 2006 Regulation 19(1)(b) and Regulation 19 (5), and the Health and Safety at Work Act.

Specifically, the notice says to NR:

"You have not given effect to your health and safety arrangements for planning control and monitoring of your preventive and protective measures, in that you have not properly implemented the control measures arising out of your risk assessment for Red-Zone foot-patrolling on the railway because you have not ensured that the number of Lookouts specified in your risk assessment as a control measure is always provided and used."

An accompanying letter from the Railways Inspector concludes:

"Finally, I highlight that this action is a result of findings of a proactive inspection programme. It should be noted that the failings identified are systemic in nature and are reflected in other formal Enforcement action taken by ORR during this and previous work-years in regard to Red-Zone working. As such, I draw your attention to the possibility that similar failings may be present in other Maintenance Delivery Units across all Routes, and I strongly recommend that you endeavour to use lessons from this action to improve your safety management systems on a wider scale."

Network Rail had already been served with a prohibition notice, which said:

"I am of the opinion that there is an immediate risk of harm to the trackworkers undertaking foot patrols on the railway line between Cardiff Central and Aberdare, Rhymney, Treherbert and Merthyr Tydfil. I have therefore served Prohibition Notice P/LVM/20100205/01 on Network Rail Infrastructure Ltd, requiring that the activity of crossing structures with no place of safety under RZ(Red Zone) conditions be ceased."

See RMT media release:

http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=132495&int1stParentNodeID=89732

Some 142 MPs have signed Early Day Motion 80, tabled by Linda Riordan, which says:

That this House notes the decision of Network Rail to announce the loss of thousands of frontline maintenance jobs by spring 2010; believes that this will mean that in a matter of months there will be a drop ofup to20 per cent. in the number of rail workers carrying out essential inspection and maintenance work; further believes that these deep and rapid cuts raise genuine and urgent concerns as to whether Network Rail will be able to ensure the safe and efficient running of the railway, including the adequate inspection and repair of track, signals, overhead lines and other infrastructure; is deeply concerned that Network Rail is failing to consult the trade unions on the safety implications of the proposals; further notes that the cuts are in part due to the fact that the economic rail regulator, the Office of Rail Regulation (ORR), has asked Network Rail to make efficiency savings of 21 per cent. over the next five years; isfurther concerned that because the ORR is both the safety and economic regulator it will be difficult for an objective view to be taken as to whether the safety of passengers and workers will be put at risk; believes the cuts cannot be justified; and calls on the Government to use its power as the primary funder of Network Rail to intervene to ensure that Network Rail directors put safety first.