Avanti West Coast
Company Council Newsletter August/September 2022
Arrogance – Belligerence – Incompetence
How did they ever let it get so bad?
It’s almost with depressing predictability that the union hears of more industrial relations problems with Avanti West Coast, a management team at the top who are arrogant and belligerent when it comes to dealing with our staff reps – and an utter failure when it comes to resolving ANY of their workers’ issues.
The latest decision, driven by a shortage of trained Drivers, to reduce train service to four trains an hour – a covid pandemic timetable – adds incompetence to the labels that now apply to them. Just as passenger levels pass 90% of pre pandemic figures Avanti West Coast goes into an inevitable but entirely predictable catastrophic collapse – this will leave passengers packed onto what crowded trains that are running – will almost certainly lead to declassification of standard premium and First Class to cope with passenger numbers – heaping even more pressure on hard pressed, stressed front line staff. Train Managers will have to try and manage this chaos whilst catering crews will struggle to provide a level of service that passengers pay for and expect. The truth is the management team know this so we have to ask the questions - do they even care about their passengers and staff… ? The tarnished public reputation - visible for all to see in reviews of the company by passengers on multiple social media pages slipped even further when they blamed the reduction in timetabled trains on the failures of Drivers to work their days off - who would ever have thought you can actually have a day off!… The fact that the Transport Secretary Grant Shambles joined in the attack on workers having the bare faced cheek to have a rostered day off speaks volumes for the different levels of rot running right through to the top. Then came a further attack on front line staff – who
had worked right through the covid pandemic whilst the rest of the country was shut down and many managers retreated to the conservatories to do zoom calls – in a further astonishing outburst Avanti Boss Phil Whittingham questioned the whether levels of staff sickness were genuine – we are now seeing an increase in the hated “managing for attendance” procedures. Away from the chaotic company wide issues unique to Avanti - and in response to the national rail dispute over jobs, pay and terms and conditions (and now pensions are being mentioned too) the Two Tory leadership candidates were in a competition to see who could attack workers the most - talking about “minimum service guarantees” in the event of strike action … although it wasn’t clear whether they’d ever demand Avanti provide a minimum service on non strike days! Obviously, the reduction in timetabled trains has another effect on rosters across much of the business – after previously imposed rosters on one and in some cases two occasions. Rosters are a negotiable item, they are based on agreed parameters – like spare cover arrangements, guarantees rest periods, etc but they are also negotiable with ELECTED staff representatives so there’s a balance of interests – the company gets its trains planned and staffed and the staff themselves get the best possible work/life balance - but on avanti in relation to Train Managers the system has now completely broken down - and staffing levels to provide the advertised, robust catering service for passengers is still a variable shambles. One of the most important jobs for a staff representative is rosters because it governs what we do at work, the quality of the work we have and gets us valuable time off – although it’s a huge challenge to get rostering back on track after all that’s happened it has to be one of our biggest priorities with the company.
RMT – Fighting for Job Security, Fair Pay and Decent Terms and Conditions