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ScotRail Cancellations

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applepie2100

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Forgive me if I've created a new thread when I could have used the previous franchise thread!

Does anyone know why for the last week or so there have been so many ScotRail cancellations due to staff shortages? Today alone there appears to be around 80 odd services cancelled under that reason on their Journeycheck page!

I'm guessing industrial relations with the new employers aren't all happy?
 
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arob

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Three of my trains have been cancelled this week alone all due to crew shortages. There's been loads of cancellations them on various routes, number of people late for work all week due to it.

Heard through Twitter its due to drivers being forced to go on new courses and not having cover for them but dunno if that's true of not!
 

cf111

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This might well be unrelated but it may be relevant:

http://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rates-of-pay-and-conditions-of-service-2015--abellio-scotrail250/

Dear colleague,

Rates of Pay & Conditions of Service 2015 – Abellio Scotrail (Drivers)


I write to advise you that your negotiating team has rejected the Company’s so-called final offer which is as follows:-

A one year offer of 2.5%, effective from 1st April 2015 to 31st March 2016 with the below productivity strings:-

• Joint Working Party established to develop a professional drivers agreement. This will replace the current DRI and the Working Party will focus on the introduction of Sundays as part of the Working Week.

• Introduce split PNBs for diagrams of nine hours or less, one break of at least 30 minutes to be provided. For diagrams over nine hours, a single break of 30 minutes or two breaks of 30 minutes at least one hour apart.

• Daily Sheet Cover – Daily roster cut off time – moved to 14:00

• Sundays: A bonus of £500 will be paid to each Driver in December in successful delivery of at least 95% of train services covered.

• With immediate effect the Company will plan for the recruitment of additional Drivers to facilitate Sunday as part of the Working Week.

This offer is completely unacceptable and it is quite clear that Abellio Scotrail is not in the business of taking the matter your pay and conditions seriously. Indeed, their cavalier attitude just shows that they have no respect for you or your colleagues.

The issue will be raised with your union’s Executive Committee at the earliest opportunity and I will keep you advised of further developments.

Yours sincerely


Mick Cash
General Secretary
 

p123

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It's by no means the last week!

You may have seen my grumblings about Abellio's service since they took over the franchise (literally changed from excellent to poor overnight) so I do have a bit of a bee in my bonnet anyway...

However this has literally been going on since shortly after Abellio took over. There was one period of 7 days a few weeks ago where none of my trains (zero, 0, -, ' ' whatever you may call it!) were either not cancelled or not severely delayed - and there were no infrastructure related issues that week before anyone asks!
 

mbreckers

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I must say I never noticed any cancellations due to crew shortage with First, but seeing it everyday with Abellio.
 

cf111

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Have Abellio managed to supply their staff with new uniforms yet?
 

Sleepy

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<( Good luck with messing about with Sunday working, some people will work every extra Sunday possible while others always try to Chuck them in, neither of these groups will be happy !
 

applepie2100

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It rather sounds like Abellio is starting to take steps to ensure that both ScotRail and the services it provides can no longer be held hostage to industrial disputes. Whether you agree with it or not Sunday for most companies is now a part of the working week and I'd wholeheartedly support those who wish to ensure that a public transport service can be provided too.
 

HH

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It rather sounds like Abellio is starting to take steps to ensure that both ScotRail and the services it provides can no longer be held hostage to industrial disputes. Whether you agree with it or not Sunday for most companies is now a part of the working week and I'd wholeheartedly support those who wish to ensure that a public transport service can be provided too.

Tell me, do you work Sundays?

I generally don't, although I have had to when necessary. I can state that I understand why some employees have a serious objection to being forced to work Sundays.

Nevertheless, I do agree that it's an issue, for a company that has to provide a service 7 days a week, if its staff don't have to work on Sundays. Frankly it's an untenable situation. Of course it's great to be able to hold your employers feet to the fire every time there's a dispute, simply by refusing to work a few Sundays (the beauty is that you can work 80% of them and still bugger the whole service up), but you can't really expect the situation to remain unchallenged.

And if Abellio are doing this, you can bet your ass that TS have tacitly agreed to it.
 

applepie2100

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I do actually work Sundays so I don't think that it's unreasonable to expect that public transport is available when required.

As a passenger I pay for a yearly season ticket. I don't get a reduction because there is no Sunday service before 9am or because on some lines they don't run a Sunday service at all. To be blunt about things as a passenger the industrial relations problems between a railway company and its staff are not my concern. My only concern is the company to which I pay my money providing the service which they advertise.

I'll agree that reasonable supplements should be paid in certain circumstances. But I also believe that the ability of employees to hold both passengers and the railway company hostage to their own whims needs to end.
 

p123

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Tell me, do you work Sundays?.

I feel I want to re-balance the conversation a little here... even though I didn't state the quoted text.

I didn't work Sunday. Actually, I didn't this week. I had Sunday off, and Sunday only.

When I was a student - I worked Sundays in a part time job. And Saturdays too. And Mon-Fri with my uni work.

When I graduated, I often had to work significant overtime during the week or Saturday/Sunday as these days you have to 'prove' to your employer how committed you are to stay in a descent graduate job.

Now I'm in a different, more independent line of work I often work partly on Sundays in addition to Mon-Fri.

So I guess I'd like to show that SR employees most certainly aren't the only ones who work on a Sunday and it's not unreasonable to ask them to do so; it seems like the poster of the above quote is also in the lucky club of working Sundays! Many other professions that seem like Mon-Fri jobs (teachers, managers, consultants etc.) also catch up on a lot of paperwork on Sundays or Saturdays too.

Of course it's great to be able to hold your employers feet to the fire every time there's a dispute, simply by refusing to work a few Sundays.

That's very true.

It's also a very unique situation in the world of work these days. I have never had the opportunity to fight for better pay and/or conditions in my lifetime in such a way and I also know many others who haven't.

But to continue being a little philosophical - those situations above where I described where I have had to work Sundays to get by. I've needed my local rail service to be able to do that.

I'm by no means complaining about having to take the train, I'm a rail enthusiast - I've always supported the rail service and gone out of my way to be friendly and helpful to staff whenever I can as I know they have a tough job sometimes. However... I do agree that it's not unreasonable to expect that public transport is available when it's needed - and that's it really, it's needed... and to continue down this path is showing those that use the rail service a lot of disrespect. The Abellio action isn't just on Sundays, it's nearly every day now - and almost always in the Strathclyde area where services are busiest.

So yes, I've moaned about Abellio a lot on these forums of late... because I now walk around a mile away from my local station to catch the bus instead. The rail service has become so unreliable and I'm so fed up that the whole situation has literally turned a rail enthusiast into someone who catches the bus when there is a train station nearer to where he lives

Abellio, if you're reading - count the beans of the lost ticket sales you have from me alone. I can assure you, it's quite high.
 

ADRboy

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I don't understand how staff are being disrespectful by working the days they're employed to.

Perhaps TOC's should employ enough drivers to run the service that they're paid to do?
 

Chrism20

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As someone who works in HR I constantly tell people to work to their contract and job description and they will have no problem so if railway staff don't want to work something they aren't contracted to do I can't really blame them.

Are there any staff on five from seven contracts?

Reading the quote in one of early posts a bonus of £500 is payable if 95% of Sunday services are achieved. If Sunday's weren't part of my contract and I wasn't legally obliged to do them I can categorically tell you now it would take more than the equivalent of £9.61 a week for me to give up a guaranteed set day off every week.
 

FordFocus

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If staff decide not to work overtime which includes Sundays, then it's their choice end of story.

If Scotrail want guaranteed staff rostered on a Sunday then they will have to offer favourable terms and conditions for those staff affected to give up their choice to have Sunday off (which most will spend with family and children). Silly annual £500 before tax payments based on a bonus performance isn't anywhere near going to solve the problem. It's actually going to stoke the fire more.
 

HH

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I don't understand how staff are being disrespectful by working the days they're employed to.

Perhaps TOC's should employ enough drivers to run the service that they're paid to do?

It's nothing to do with the number of staff. I hope that you're not employed in any job that requires verbal reasoning.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Are there any staff on five from seven contracts?

London Overground Drivers are. I think they got paid rather more than £500 for changing to those T&Cs though.

EDIT: They work 4 days from 7, but still 35 hours.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
If staff decide not to work overtime which includes Sundays, then it's their choice end of story.

If Scotrail want guaranteed staff rostered on a Sunday then they will have to offer favourable terms and conditions for those staff affected to give up their choice to have Sunday off (which most will spend with family and children). Silly annual £500 before tax payments based on a bonus performance isn't anywhere near going to solve the problem. It's actually going to stoke the fire more.
Quite true. Particularly given the history around ScotRail drivers - for those who are not aware, there was an extended strike when the franchise was run by NX.

--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
The Abellio action isn't just on Sundays, it's nearly every day now

Let's be clear here; the action is not by Abellio, it's against Abellio. And of course the staff will not restrict their actions to Sundays - they're trying to cause Abellio as much pain as possible.

The issue is whether they've brought it on themselves. It seems to me that they have, by making a risible offer to the staff. The BIG question to my mind is who made the decision to make it? Dominic Booth would seem to be the person in charge, now that Jeff Hoogestegger has been fired.
 
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Chew Chew

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Whilst I can understand why existing drivers will be unhappy with Sunday becoming a 'normal' working day I don't see the issue the union are having with it being a 'normal' working day for new drivers.

They can't have it both ways.

It is a service industry and they need to have respect for the customer.
 

HH

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Whilst I can understand why existing drivers will be unhappy with Sunday becoming a 'normal' working day I don't see the issue the union are having with it being a 'normal' working day for new drivers.

They can't have it both ways.

It is a service industry and they need to have respect for the customer.

Driver turnover rates are very low. Just new drivers would take around 30 years to work.
 

SkinnyDave

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Whilst I can understand why existing drivers will be unhappy with Sunday becoming a 'normal' working day I don't see the issue the union are having with it being a 'normal' working day for new drivers.

They can't have it both ways.

It is a service industry and they need to have respect for the customer.

You are missing the point entirely there..
Aslef in Scotland are not against Sunday working they quite rightly want a 4 day week with Sunday inside the working week.
Instead off grasping the nettle and sitting down with concrete proposal they come up with a £500 bonus??!! And they then still rely on overtime to cover a Sunday service.
It's 2015 and I agree the public are demanding a service but running it relying on drivers doing overtime on a Sunday which is fly by the seat of your pants stuff.
They need to put an offer down that puts Sunday's in the basic salary therefore pensionable.. I think fairest way of doing it is a 4 on 4 off system this gets the debate going in my mess room
 

HH

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I think fairest way of doing it is a 4 on 4 off system this gets the debate going in my mess room

That's a 3.5 day week, which would roughly double the requirement for additional drivers required from including Sundays in a 4 day week.

Is this instead of extra pay, or as well as?
 

Bodiddly

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Maybe we should all go back to the old days and sit on our *rses on a Sunday and do nothing! :D
 

harz99

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A further option would be to employ some staff on weekend only contracts, in a similar way to that which Royal Mail does for their lorry drivers.

For some people the opportunity to work 2 days a week and have 5 off would be heaven sent, especially in the later years of their life.
 

SkinnyDave

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That's a 3.5 day week, which would roughly double the requirement for additional drivers required from including Sundays in a 4 day week.

Is this instead of extra pay, or as well as?

There is talk at our TOC of having at as a 32 hour or 41 hour week thats why hundreds of Trainee drivers have been recruited
 

Carlisle

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The issue is whether they've brought it on themselves. It seems to me that they have, by making a risible offer to the staff. The BIG question to my mind is who made the decision to make it? Dominic Booth would seem to be the person in charge, now that Jeff Hoogestegger has been fired.

It's not entirely Abellios fault, past TOCs have had many years to find a better alternative to the original BR Conditions of working Sunday's as compulsory booked overtime, Or the more recent policy of Sundays as entirety voluntary overtime
 
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HH

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There is talk at our TOC of having at as a 32 hour or 41 hour week thats why hundreds of Trainee drivers have been recruited

Just including Sunday in the week means you need approximately 15% additional drivers - the exact ratio depends on how many SU Diagrams there are compared to SX+SO.

There is one other thing that might be driving the desire to sort this issue - if you have travelled on Sunday trains, many of them are now as busy as Saturday's. Demand is almost certainly being stifled on some routes by a poor service. There's a need for more trains to be run on a Sunday.
 

Chew Chew

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You are missing the point entirely there..
Aslef in Scotland are not against Sunday working they quite rightly want a 4 day week with Sunday inside the working week.
Instead off grasping the nettle and sitting down with concrete proposal they come up with a £500 bonus??!! And they then still rely on overtime to cover a Sunday service.
It's 2015 and I agree the public are demanding a service but running it relying on drivers doing overtime on a Sunday which is fly by the seat of your pants stuff.
They need to put an offer down that puts Sunday's in the basic salary therefore pensionable.. I think fairest way of doing it is a 4 on 4 off system this gets the debate going in my mess room

I'm talking about the RMT comments as posted on the previous page.

Personally I think that in 2015 Sunday is no longer a 'premium' day and it should be classed as an ordinary day for workers so there shouldn't be any additional payment.

I agree with you that relying on overtime to cover normal services isn't something that should be done and they need to improve that.

In my part of Scotland, Aberdeen, it is impossible to get to Glasgow or Edinburgh by train before midday on a Sunday. It is archaic.
 

me123

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^ I agree. Sunday services remain poor in general. You highlight the issue of Aberdeen-Central belt runs, but it's the same in other places as well. When I was in Glasgow, the Sunday services often started four hours after they would on any other day. When a service is offered, it's typically at a much lower frequency to what is offered during the week, but can nevertheless see larger passenger flows! An example of this is Airdrie-Glasgow, which decreases from 6tph to just 2, one of which starts at Edinburgh (a decrease from 4 in the morning). It's only been relatively recently that Edinburgh-Glasgow via Falkirk was just 1tph on Sunday morning!

People will point to lower passenger numbers on weekends, particularly in the morning. But Sunday services often remain extremely busy regardless. The much less frequent service between Glasgow and Aberdeen can be full and standing most of the way - thankfully Scotrail recently increased frequency about a year ago IIRC.

People are increasingly working and traveling on Sundays, and quite frankly lots of us do it without any premium attached. I think we need to start considering Sunday as a part of the normal working week. I know plenty of rail staff will disagree with me on this point, but I don't think you should be relying on overtime to cover a basic public service. If you need to recruit more to cover the cost - then so be it. And I do think staff should be compensated appropriately.
 

scotraildriver

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If Abellio made a sensible offer based along the lines of what other TOCs accepted to include Sundays the union would be in favour and it would be acceptable. But they haven't made any sensible offer bearing in mind we are 12 weeks beyond the pay review date (April 1st), people are getting fed up. And the date for uniforms is Nov/Dec. This is my third franchise change and I've never seen such a shambles. TBh it is almost as if Abellio didn't think they would win, they are certainly struggling at the moment in a number of key areas.
 

HH

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If Abellio made a sensible offer based along the lines of what other TOCs accepted to include Sundays the union would be in favour and it would be acceptable. But they haven't made any sensible offer bearing in mind we are 12 weeks beyond the pay review date (April 1st), people are getting fed up. And the date for uniforms is Nov/Dec. This is my third franchise change and I've never seen such a shambles. TBh it is almost as if Abellio didn't think they would win, they are certainly struggling at the moment in a number of key areas.

Well at the moment the NS CFO is struggling to hold down three jobs after the NS CEO resigned and the Abellio CEO was sacked. I hear that they're in a bit of a pickle and not heeding the advice at the front of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy...
 

Mag_seven

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This story has now hit the news:

ScotRail has said it will be reducing its rail services on Sundays from this weekend as it does not have enough drivers.
The rail operator said ongoing pay negotiations meant that drivers were not volunteering for Sunday shifts.
ScotRail said it had offered drivers a 2.5% pay rise and a one-off bonus, and would increase driver numbers.
Aslef, the drivers' union, accused Scotrail of trying to push new terms and conditions through.
ScotRail said that although they would be running fewer trains on Sundays, most of the trains that do run will have more carriages.
It claimed this would provide almost the same capacity as was offered by the normal services on every route.
Bus services will also be in operation to make connections with ferry services.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-33347041
 
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