"Recliner" wrote in message
...
"tim....." wrote:
"David Walters" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 18 Jun 2015 12:35:20 +0000 (UTC), y
wrote:
So the overpaid button pushers will be out again on the 8th of July.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33180965

"Aslef, which represents around 70% of drivers, said LU was trying to
force
through new rosters which would mean drivers worked unlimited hours "

Really? Thats unlikely because it would be illegal. FUD from a union,
who'd
have thought it.

The ASLEF press release at
http://www.aslef.org.uk/information/...ction_on_tube/
reads slightly differently:

"ASLEF members on London Underground have voted overwhelmingly for
strike
action in a dispute over the company’s decision to try to force through,
without negotiation, new rosters which would mean Tube drivers will have
to work an unlimited number of weekend and night shifts for no extra
pay."

presumably that worded to mean:

work an unlimited number of weekend/night shifts without being paid for
them.

when the realty is:

work an unlimited number of weekend/nights instead of the same number of
weekday shifts

what's the problem here. There isn't an unlimited number of weekend
days in a year and if you don't share them out "fairly" there will be
no-one working the weekday shifts

I wonder, do they get paid more for "unsocial hours" shifts, or are they
on
fixed salaries for fixed hours, which can include a proportion of shifts
at
any time?

Presumably that is the point

TfL are (perhaps) asking them to work nights as part of a standard shift
with no unsociable hours payments

and if that is the complaint I am sure that most people would have sympathy
with the view that it is wrong for an employer to expect this.

So ISTM there is no need to the union to exaggerate their complaint by using
weasel works that imply they are being asked to work extrta hours without
being paid at all

And then, I see no reason why this dispute has to be resolved by a threat of
strike action.

In a collective bargaining agreement [1] an employer cannot force changes in
working terms and conditions upon staff without their agreement. All the
employee's representative have to do is say "no we aren't going to agree to
a change in our contracts to work "nights" unless there is suitable
compensation for doing so" and the employer is snookered

tim

[1] You can't theoretically do it in any worker/employer relationship, but
it much easier for workers to be "persuaded" if there isn't a union in the
way