BRITAIN'S BIGGEST rail union today condemned Network Rail's 'gloating' over its cull of front-line maintenance jobs and demanded a reversal of cuts that would make another rail disaster inevitable.
AS NR boasted that 500 front-line staff would leave by the end of May, RMT charged that its slash-and-burn attack on jobs and conditions had nothing to do with overstaffing, new technology or outdated working practices, but was a dangerous money-saving gamble.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:
"NR is trying to con the public into believing that a cost-led jobs cull is safe when we already know that inspections and maintenance frequencies are overstretched and that most safety recommendations made after the Grayrigg crash have not been implemented in full or in part.
"NR knows as well as our skilled members that signalling systems need more maintenance, not less, that there is no widespread introduction of new technology, and that the conditions it wants to rip up have been negotiated in recent years.
"The fact is that NR is under pressure to slash 21 per cent from its budget, wants to axe 1,500 front-line posts, lump maintenance functions onto over-worked signallers, and impose changes that will undermine rail safety and make another disaster inevitable.
"The only part of NR that needs a jobs cull is the boardroom, whose latest wheeze will result in an increase in the ratio of over-paid executives on telephone-number pay and bonuses to front-line skilled staff, at the direct expense of rail safety.
"We have tried to talk Network Rail bosses into some sense, but they went running instead to the high court to overturn a democratic vote for strike action and have played a disgraceful role in refusing to use their powers to save the jobs of another 1,200 Jarvis workers.
"The company's plans are simply dangerous and RMT will continue to resist them, including re-balloting for strike action."
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