ASLEF push for more female and BAME drivers

Rail union in push for more female and BAME train drivers

Just 6.5% of drivers in England, Wales and Scotland are women, and 8% are an ethnic minority, says Aslef


Aslef will call for targeted action from train operators to tackle the issue. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
A campaign to increase the number of female, BAME and younger train drivers is being launched after a study revealed the “glaring gap” between their numbers and those in the population they serve.

Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said just 6.5% of drivers in England, Wales and Scotland were women, 8% were from a minority ethnic background and 15% were under 35.

In its report, On track with diversity, to be published in parliament on Monday, the union will call for targeted action from train operators to tackle the issue.

Aslef’s general secretary, Mick Whelan, said he wanted to see “fewer people who look like me”. After 35 years in the industry he said he was well aware how many train drivers were middle-aged, male, and white.

The union was working with private train and freight operating companies every day to encourage the recruitment and retention of under-represented groups.

“We believe that a train driver is a train driver is a train driver – regardless of gender, sexuality, religion or race – and we’ve been pushing the companies to allow more part-time and flexible working because the lack of such agreements has been a barrier, in the past, to women coming into our industry as many still take on the primary responsibility for childcare,” said Whelan.

The report calls on operators to gather specific data on numbers of BAME, under-35s and women drivers, and to identify points along the “talent pipeline” where there are significant drop-offs of under-represented groups.

It calls for targeted action such as guidance workshops on making job applications, or independent panel members at interview stage.

“From the data we have seen women, people of BAME backgrounds and those aged under 35 are not only under represented in rail as a whole, but are especially under represented in the driver grade. The reasons for this should be understood,” the report states.

Among recommendations the report states operators should not use gendered pronouns in job adverts, and should place adverts on websites and publications that could attract a wide pool of applicants from under-represented groups. It calls for senior leaders to act as champions for under-represented groups.

Whelan said there was “light at the end of the tunnel” if recommendations in the report were implemented, “because we know the rail industry needs to do more to improve its recruitment policies and we will work closely with the companies to ensure this happens.”

The Department for Transport said: “We are committed to delivering a more diverse and representative workforce in the transport sector; underrepresentation limits opportunity, and also robs the industry of talent.

“We have written to the industry to ensure fair maternity leave and flexible working is in place for those returning from maternity and paternity. We have also asked them to see what more can be done to introduce family-friendly policies.”

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GingerSte said:

Then I thought "What actually is stopping them from applying?"

The first thing that came to mind was the shift patterns. Constantly changing shift patterns must make it difficult for parents (especially mothers) from organising childcare, school transport etc. Is there anything that could be done in that area? My general perception was that the unions would be against any such changes to rosters. (This may be an overly dim view of unions, but that's for another thread.) However, this call has come from a union - ASLEF. Maybe they would be a bit more amenable to this than I assumed?

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kevconnor said:

Sometimes it can be something as small as awareness. When look at how the police promote vacancies they intentionally try to run adverts specifically to promote them to under represented groups.

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Carlisle said:

I’d be very surprised if figures vary much on railways the word over.,with train drivers being predominantly male, consisting mostly of the ethnic majority of the country in question

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DarloRich said:

Firstly - we should be recruiting people from as wide a base as we can and trying to make it as easy as possible for all members of our community to apply and win employment.

Secondly - if there are blockers we need to examine why and what can be done to remove them. The shifts a driver ( or guard) work are not really conducive to a good family life and so you might struggle if you had primary care for a child or relative.

Thirdly - Are there other things that might stop someone from a "BAME" ( cant stand these labels) background applying? Is it a perception issue? Does the process exclude them? Is the culture wrong? Do we allow the right level of flexibility etc etc.

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beano900 said:

Here’s an idea for ASLEF- why not just recruit the best qualified people for the job, irrespective of identity?

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beano900 said:

Here’s an idea for ASLEF- why not just recruit the best qualified people for the job, irrespective of identity?

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bramling said:

Tinkering with shifts to suit a person's personal circumstances is already one of the biggest sources of disquiet - for example "X applied for the job knowing what it entailed, and now he/she wants their own personalised set of duties, wouldn't we all?".

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bramling said:

Given the way recruitment campaigns are normally grossly over-subscribed, I don't think the industry really needs to be worrying about attracting more people.

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GingerSte said:

I'm talking about the reverse of that: create sets/classes of duties that stand a chance of fitting around the needs of parents/caregivers, and then advertise/recruit.

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beano900 said:

Here’s an idea for ASLEF- why not just recruit the best qualified people for the job, irrespective of identity?

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beano900 said:

Here’s an idea for ASLEF- why not just recruit the best qualified people for the job, irrespective of identity?

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bramling said:

Ouch! So you'd take a set of duties which will likely have preferential timings off the general roster, which means everyone else is left with more worse ones? The whole reason for having a roster in the first place is so that the rough and smooth is evenly spread out, otherwise everyone would pick the smooth and the rough would always be uncovered.

It's nice if people can get the duties they want, and there's mechanisms to help people achieve that (mutual changeovers being the main one, managers assisting with duty changes and rest day swaps if someone is stuck, plus some more formal arrangements to suit specific situations), however it's really not viable to have people taking on the job who are heavily restricted as to what shifts they can work.

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beano900 said:

Here’s an idea for ASLEF- why not just recruit the best qualified people for the job, irrespective of identity?

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GingerSte said:

So increase the mechanisms. Make it easier. Do away with rosters where you work earlies for one week and lates for the next one (killing the possibility of arranging childcare). If you need to do earlies (or lates) to fit in with other commitments, then do that every week. Get some people in to work weekends.

Yes, some people will end up on less popular shifts. Pay them more if you need to! Besides, what's worse for some people is better for others. Some people prefer earlies, when they can drive to work with no issues. Some like nights. Part time rosters could help deal with the peaks at either end of the working day, without paying them to sit in the break room for six hours. My experience of part-timers is that they are also more willing/able to cover weekends.

Apart from the really small TOCs, there must surely be enough shifts to cover, that a bit of thought in this direction could work wonders. Don't just allocate shifts on who is best mates with the union reps.

The more that TOCs can be flexible with their staff (while acknowledging that there is a train service to run), the more goodwill they will generate from those staff.

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bramling said:

Tinkering with shifts to suit a person's personal circumstances is already one of the biggest sources of disquiet - for example "X applied for the job knowing what it entailed, and now he/she wants their own personalised set of duties, wouldn't we all?"

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beano900 said:

Here’s an idea for ASLEF- why not just recruit the best qualified people for the job, irrespective of identity?

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bramling said:

I have to agree. The train driver role is one where a completely level playing field genuinely applies - everyone is treated the same no matter what their background is, so long as they can meet the strict requirements for the role.

Tinkering with shifts to suit a person's personal circumstances is already one of the biggest sources of disquiet - for example "X applied for the job knowing what it entailed, and now he/she wants their own personalised set of duties, wouldn't we all?".

Given the way recruitment campaigns are normally grossly over-subscribed, I don't think the industry really needs to be worrying about attracting more people.

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GingerSte said:

So increase the mechanisms. Make it easier. Do away with rosters where you work earlies for one week and lates for the next one (killing the possibility of arranging childcare). If you need to do earlies (or lates) to fit in with other commitments, then do that every week. Get some people in to work weekends.

Yes, some people will end up on less popular shifts. Pay them more if you need to! Besides, what's worse for some people is better for others. Some people prefer earlies, when they can drive to work with no issues. Some like nights. Part time rosters could help deal with the peaks at either end of the working day, without paying them to sit in the break room for six hours. My experience of part-timers is that they are also more willing/able to cover weekends.

Apart from the really small TOCs, there must surely be enough shifts to cover, that a bit of thought in this direction could work wonders. Don't just allocate shifts on who is best mates with the union reps.

The more that TOCs can be flexible with their staff (while acknowledging that there is a train service to run), the more goodwill they will generate from those staff.

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LOL The Irony said:

Does it really matter about the colour of the skin of the person driving the train? They could be purple for all I care, just as long as they get me from a to b on time.

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bramling said:

Again, that all works if you somehow manage to achieve a setup where all the pieces fit into the right-shaped hole, all the time. Obviously locations differ, however I think it's fair to say there's generally a much greater bias towards people preferring early turns. Likewise many people actively hate nights. Those two squares alone are massively difficult to fit into the proverbial round hole, and that's before we get into the territory of weekends, school holidays and the like.

It's one of those things that if it was really viable to achieve then it would already have been done. Things like seniority links already arouse debate at times, can you imagine the bitching if a particular person was fast-tracked to the earlies-only link simply for having children or being female? And quite rightly so IMO.

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DanDaDriver said:

This this this, 1000x this.

We should absolutely be recruiting recruiting from all walks of life and targeting underrepresented groups can only be a good thing

But, (not so much at my current TOC, much more at the previous one) this is the biggest cause of friction between staff in the same grade.

The job is what it is, and unless you share the bad bits (earlies and lates basically) out equally it’s not going to work. And this was the problem at my old TOC, they were that terrified of being accused of discrimination that if a female driver (which there weren’t enough of anyway) asked for flexible working / no lates or whatever then they were 99% sure of getting it agreed. One of the old boys coming up to retirement and wanting to slow down would be told flatly, ‘no.’

But all this aside, the Railway would be stupid not to recruit from the broadest possible group and make use of the skills and experience they can bring.

TLDR: Yes we must and should recruit without barriers, but treat everyone in the same grade the same.

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Bromley boy said:

Quite right.

The railway is certainly increasing the ethnic diversity of its workforce, especially in London where there is a large BAME population to draw from. That is a good thing. The railway should draw from the population it serves.

But anyone coming into the job knows what that are getting into and the only “fair” way of doing things is everyone being given an equal crack of the whip in terms of the roster. We are all feee to arrange mutual swaps etc. where we can.

Having children is a lifestyle choice and as a childless single male I’d certainly feel aggrieved if the most sociable shifts were creamed off and given to those with children.

It’s also true that train driving doesn’t for whatever reason appeal to many women. We can argue about the sociological factors underlining that but, to my mind, so long as those who do apply are given an equal chance, that is as far as the railway needs to go. It’s unrealistic to imagine that 50% of the driver population will ever be female, in just the same way as the majority of primary school teachers are female.

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Bellbell said:

It does if the person with the purple skin is being excluded from driving you from a to b, for whatever reason, whether deliberately or not.

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Bellbell said:

It will become a self perpetuating problem if the railway shrugs its shoulders and says we let women apply, what more do you want? And yes, we probably won't ever get to 50% but that doesn't mean we just give up at 6.5% and let things carry on exactly as they are.

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GingerSte said:

(Tangent alert) I went to an interesting talk given by Dr Hannah Fry recently. One of the things that caught my attention was that a company had designed hand dryers that worked when detecting hands underneath. Unfortunately, they didn't detect black peoples' hands. It was just an oversight by the (all white) development team. (/Tangent alert) It's oversights like this, and the blockers like shift patterns, that could and should be addressed (IMO).

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Mintona said:

I think the point ASLEF are making is that potentially the ‘best qualified people for the job’ aren’t applying. It’s all about removing barriers to ensure everyone has a fair chance. Anything that encourages a more diverse workforce is to be applauded, so I support ASLEF in this work.

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Bromley boy said:

By all means use targeted recruitment campaigns to encourage female applicants, and ensure those candidates are treated equally through the recruitment process. Note that many TOCs now use “blind” CV screening. That is a good thing.

But the *overwhelming* concern, to my mind, should be to ensure that the best candidate gets the job in every case.

Otherwise we start down a dangerous road of social engineering, “positive discrimination” and the risk of accusations of tokenism.

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Bellbell said:

Genuine question, do you work on the railway? Shifts aren't allocated, as such, when it comes to drivers. Each driver has their position in the link and they follow it week by week. It's not like the union reps sit down each week and do the roster.

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Bellbell said:

Leaving that aside, what do you do about the people who end up on less popular shifts apart from pay them more? What if they don't want to? What if you end up solely with new drivers doing certain shifts, is that a good thing? Who decides who gets to do the lovely mon-fri earlies? Who gets to sit in the break room for six hours then cover the morning or evening peak and how do I get a job with them? If you are on the railway then the situation at your depot certainly doesn't match that at mine.

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