'For a member of the London Assembly to accuse public transport workers who keep our capital moving today and during Covid of being "skivers” is reprehensible'
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has blasted the Tory politician Tony Devenish over comments he made last week suggesting London Underground workers were ‘skiving’.
The union has called on Devenish, who is a Greater London Authority member, to retract his ‘reprehensible’ comments and issue an apology, as well as urging the Conservative leader in the London Assembly, Neil Garratt, to distance himself from Devenish’s allegations.
It comes after Tube stations in London have been forced to close due to the “unavailability of station staff” according to the Transport for London (TfL), and which the rail workers union put down to the loss of 600 Tube staff jobs.
In response, Westminster Conservative councillor, Devenish, tweeted, ‘RMT union fairytales. Skiving is skiving,’ as he alleged that there were ‘no staff shortages’ and urged the London Mayor to condemn the suggestion that job losses were to blame for station closures.
However Devenish’s Tweet faced a barrage of criticism and fact-checkers mocking his allegations.
One responder asked, ‘any actually evidence of “skiving”?’ as another pointing out, ‘It literally doesn’t even say that in the article. “unavailability of station staff” means understaffing and a reliance of overtime’. Whilst another asked, ‘if there’s no staff shortages, why can’t they manage to staff the station?’.
A further responder weighed in: ‘Staff skiving ? You mean those taking their allocated leave or those on their booked days off with no cover for their shifts due to understaffing, not wanting to work overtime to fill the gap in the roster.’
Mick Lynch wrote a letter to the Conservative leader in the London Assembly, asking for ‘urgent confirmation’ that Devenish’s comments don’t reflect those of the Conservative Group, and that Devenish retract his statement and issue an apology.
Lynch referred to government cuts to TfL services resulting in ‘a spiral of understaffing, growing frustration and violence towards our members’ before laying out the ‘facts on the ground’.
The RMT leader wrote: “Our members were described by the former Secretary of State for Transport as “true heroes” for their role in keeping public transport moving during the Covid pandemic.
“Referring to London Underground yesterday Mr Devenish took to Twitter to allege that ‘Skiving is Skiving. There are no staff shortages.’
“For a member of the London Assembly to accuse public transport workers who keep our capital moving today and during Covid of being “skivers” is reprehensible and has, understandably, caused considerable hurt and anger amongst my members.”
He went on to say the loss of 600 station staff posts had left the London Underground with insufficient staff to maintain all its stations with ‘ the level of staffing required under LU’s safety agreements’ before he highlighted recent examples of increased violence against staff.
“LU managers have been left with the choice of leaving stations open with no staff or closing them. This is causing frustration for many passengers.
“Violence against my members on the Underground is rising. In the fourth Quarter of 2022/23, there were 1,316 incidents of Workplace Violence or Aggression reported against LU staff, 47% of the total in TfL and up on the previous quarter.
“On Sunday 21st May, one of my members was knocked unconscious and suffered a bleed on the brain and a fractured skull after an assault at Harrow-on-the-Hill which British Transport Police described as an “appalling and unprovoked act of violence on a member of staff simply doing their job”.
“This week there was a further serious assault on one of my members at Baker Street station.
“The truth is that the cuts forced on TfL by the government as conditions of emergency funding to cover the impact of the pandemic, have resulted in a spiral of understaffing, growing frustration and violence toward our members.”
RMT has called on TfL to end programme cuts as they warned of Tube workers facing threats of violence after there were more than 100 station closures in two months.
Hannah Davenport is trade union reporter at Left Foot Forward
(Photo credit: GBNews / Youtube Screenshot)
Left Foot Forward’s trade union reporting is supported by the Barry Amiel and Norman Melburn Trust
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