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Staff Mess Rooms - not accessible to the public...

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richw

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Staff Mess Rooms - not accessible to the public...

just reading the title and nothing else here, this is a similar statement to an Asda staff room not being accessible to the public. why should it be?
 
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Clip

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I used to love the GNER fruity @ KGX it paid out the most money the most times Ive ever seen one do. especially a thursday after they got paid!! topped me up as we got paid a week after them.

Thanks GNER staff
 

KA4C

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Yes, but rail workers are about the only lot who actually get separate toilets etc etc.


No, NHS workers also do, my wife works in a hospital

If other staff have an issue, then they should raise it, should they not, using the appropriate regulations, don't know why some on here seem to have problem with rail staff, seems to be in nearly every other thread

Our local Co-op doesn't have public toilets but has staff toilets, think I might complain about that, same with W H Smiths, Boots, Argos, oooh and the bus station as well
 

es373

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I may be misunderstanding something here but what exactly is the problem with having staff areas away from the public?
I don't work with the public as I work in a depot but I would feel sorry if our drivers, train managers etc had to take lunch with punters. Not that I don't like them but its more about having some personal space in the time you are on your break.
 

MattRobinson

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Getting back to the issue of messrooms, KWVR's Haworth messroom has a long table down the centre and chairs either side, a signing on book at one end and a little kitchenette at the other. Bit dirty (it's effectively a working steam shed/works, it's not exactly likely to be clean...), but quite a nice area to say that it's a preserved railway. Built in what was, I believe, the old goods shed office.
 

Flange Squeal

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I've never seen shops etc with staff toilets.
Unless you work there, then you probably wouldn't see the staff toilets in a shop, as they'd be behind a door that only staff have access to. Like the stockroom - you rarely see those but they obviously exist!

Even office workers will have toilets in the office block, that random members of the public can't just walk in past reception and use.
 

scotsman

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Unless you work there, then you probably wouldn't see the staff toilets in a shop, as they'd be behind a door that only staff have access to. Like the stockroom - you rarely see those but they obviously exist!

Even office workers will have toilets in the office block, that random members of the public can't just walk in past reception and use.

Often you'll find that staff aren't allowed to use the "public" toilets in their workplace, just to ensure that the public can get in!
 

Clip

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The obvious example is bus or coach driving (in the sticks, not London) where there are no special toilets or messrooms whatsoever.

I suppose offices count as segregated toilets if there are no public allowed in the offices?

Bus terminal out the front of Victoria station has locked toilets for staff only. I should imagine most do.
 

E&W Lucas

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Before joining the railway I worked in a major supermarket, a chain pub and a DIY chain and all had seperate toilets and staff break rooms. In fact, at the pub we were not allowed to have a break in the public bar or use public toilets in uniform.

Similar experience here too, and definitely separate staff areas. It's common sense!

Worth pointing out, that safety critical staff are required to have breaks Away from the work environment, also that when there are "luxury" facilities like Sky TV provided, this is usually through the Unions. Typically, this means leasing a fruit machine, and reinvesting the profits.
 

KA4C

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Similar experience here too, and definitely separate staff areas. It's common sense!

Worth pointing out, that safety critical staff are required to have breaks Away from the work environment, also that when there are "luxury" facilities like Sky TV provided, this is usually through the Unions. Typically, this means leasing a fruit machine, and reinvesting the profits.


That is correct, any facilities other than basics will be provides by the staff themselves
 

34D

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Lothian have a load of toilets around Edinburgh which are for the use of drivers only.

Again, this is the exception rather than the rule.

Come up here and use the kazi in Leeds bus station and see how many drivers (First and others) you rub shoulders with.

I may be misunderstanding something here but what exactly is the problem with having staff areas away from the public?

I think the problem is quite simply that passengers find it greatly offensive to ask "where are the toilets please" only to be told "no toilets here sorry" and then for that staff member to go facilitate himself in the finest bone china.

Similar experience here too, and definitely separate staff areas. It's common sense!

Worth pointing out, that safety critical staff are required to have breaks Away from the work environment

Can you give a source for this, please? Your comment is at odds with my own understanding of H&S law, but I'm happy to be corrected.
 

313103

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God some people really need to get a life! Nearly every single employer provides facilities for there staff. The railways are not the exception. Despite what some people in this particular thread think. Perhaps you would like us to pi55 on the platform in friont of everyone!

34D as for having the finest bone china you have not used the staff toilets at either Willesden or Richmond, most of the staff actually pay to use the public one at Richmond!

The only way the girls can see what is in the messroom is by climbing on to a wall and hoping that the blinds have been lifted.

Apart from the chairs and tables and until just recently the drinks machine, everything else has been purchased and rented by a welfare club that i helped set up in the 1990s. So the TV, the pool table, the slot machine ( which is what funds most of if not all)is purchased by the staff themselves.

Whay people are so jealous of what railway staff have is really something else, if your not happy about what you have at work, then set up a welfare club (oh and all the legal stuff you have to do with regard that), then you can choose to have what you want. Rather then grumbling about what passsengers have and dont have at railway stations.

Such a good and amusing thread that was started in houmour has now been overtaken by those that are jealous.

Sorry xplo42 for your thread being spoilt.
 
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the sniper

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I think the problem is quite simply that passengers find it greatly offensive to ask "where are the toilets please" only to be told "no toilets here sorry" and then for that staff member to go facilitate himself in the finest bone china.

You just bemuse me. What is the name of the alternative reality you're living in? First you've never heard of shops with toilets for staff, whereas it seems that everybody else (including myself) who's actually worked in shops has. Now you think staff messrooms are some kind of toilet utopia? I'll tell you, the messroom toilets I've used are normally anything but that...

Also, can you really not see why toilets for staff might be provided where public toilets aren't? Not that that is usually the case anyway.
 

LE Greys

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If we have something you don't it causes immense upset

Precisely, but it has to be seen to cause anything. Really, the message should be to make sure that there are reasonable facilities for all than anything.
 

GB

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I'm not aware of any law that says railway safety critical workers have to have breaks away from the working environment. Indeed in many railway jobs this is impossible which is probably why the railways are exuded from parts of the WTR.
 

es373

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Pay at Richmond?! Pull the turnstile back a quarter turn then push forward.
 

Flange Squeal

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I think the problem is quite simply that passengers find it greatly offensive to ask "where are the toilets please" only to be told "no toilets here sorry" and then for that staff member to go facilitate himself in the finest bone china.
With the greatest of respect though, a passenger may be on the train for a 30min journey, before reaching their destination and continuing with the rest of their day. A driver/guard will be stuck on board that train for maybe two 5 hour stints continuously with minimal turnarounds at stations without toilets, perhaps - especially on London/Glasgow suburban routes - with no inboard toilets. So when you're doing 5hrs continuous with no access to a toilet, I don't think it unreasonable for staff to expect clean toilets in their accommodation that is free of vandalism, which is an almost certainty when toilets are left unattended at unstaffed stations or after station staff have gone home after opening hours.
 

142094

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Some of the staff rooms I've seen/used can be dire places as well, so not as if it is all luxury.
 

Flamingo

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Of course, staff messrooms are restricted areas, so all people in there must have an ID card or be accompanied, and I've been given to believe off-duty staff present in there would be subject to the same drugs & alcohol policy as if they were on duty.
 

Flange Squeal

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Of course, staff messrooms are restricted areas, so all people in there must have an ID card or be accompanied, and I've been given to believe off-duty staff present in there would be subject to the same drugs & alcohol policy as if they were on duty.
Certainly the case on my TOC 'for security reasons', regardless of whether it's a major station or a portakabin-esque depot in the countryside - even if you are based at the depot you are in and on duty in full uniform, it is still a disciplinary offence to not display in view a valid photo ID. To be caught letting members of the public in, even if only to use the facilities, wouldn't go down well whatsoever....
 

es373

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Certainly the case on my TOC 'for security reasons', regardless of whether it's a major station or a portakabin-esque depot in the countryside - even if you are based at the depot you are in and on duty in full uniform, it is still a disciplinary offence to not display in view a valid photo ID. To be caught letting members of the public in, even if only to use the facilities, wouldn't go down well whatsoever....


Same rules here. Are you CTRL then? Channel tunnel security order and all that.
 

DarloRich

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We don't have a staff mess room as such in our shiny new office, more a staff restaurant! No nudgy mind!

The toilets are quite nice mind but are for staff only as there is a security barrier to get past - none of your grotty depot rubbish here! Keep your dirty boots and hivi somewhere else. And wash your hands! :)
 
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