Trouble lies on the road ahead

Many public transport workers lost their lives in the first wave of the pandemic when adequate safety measures were not in place, according to Bobby Morton, national officer for the Unite general union.

For example, a July 2020 independent review into the deaths of London bus drivers from COVID-19 confirmed that in London alone, 34 bus workers are reported to have died of the infection.

The interim report, London bus drivers review, focuses on the deaths of 27 bus drivers between March and May 2020. It says bus and coach drivers are among the occupations that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported as having “elevated mortality” from COVID.

Unite “swung into action immediately”, says Morton, securing safety measures on buses that include cashless journeys or chutes to avoid drivers having to handle cash, and blocking air holes in the shields on drivers’ cabs.

Transport unions also pushed the government to introduce mandatory face coverings on public transport (although they are still fighting for proper enforcement of these rules). But now the union is also starting to see attacks on members’ jobs, pay and conditions.

The COVID-19 outbreak has severely disrupted the public transport system. During the first lockdown, when hospitality, leisure and non-essential shops were closed and a significant proportion of the workforce was furloughed or working from home, tube and rail use dropped to less than 5% of their usual levels, according to the Campaign for Better Transport (CfBT). Bus use dropped to between 10% and 15%.

This drop in passengers has had “profound implications for operators as fare revenue has evaporated”, CfBT reported, and the government stepped in with financial support (see box on page 11).

The top 10 largest private bus operators in the UK, “are all making a profit despite the coronavirus pandemic,” Morton told Labour Research.

Fire and rehire at Go Ahead

Nevertheless, Unite reported earlier this year that the Go Ahead transport group was “using COVID-19 as a cover for making savage cuts” at Manchester bus company Go North West.

Go Ahead plc is a profitable company, the union says, and expects its overall operating profit for the year ending 27 June 2020 to be between £63 million and £75 million. But Unite says the company was intending to “fire” the entire workforce and “rehire” those that agree to accept inferior contracts. The cuts include changes the union says would cost each driver £3,500 a year on average, lead to an unpaid increase in working hours, and slash sick pay arrangements.

Morton said: “One of these attacks on terms and conditions is a reduction in sick pay at the very time they need it, as they are working on the frontline and potentially exposed to the virus.” The union launched an international campaign to fight the changes and consulted the 500 drivers on taking industrial action.

Railways

Meanwhile, rail unions secured safety improvements through the Rail Industry Coronavirus Forum (RICF). The RICF was formed of rail unions, TSSA, RMT, ASLEF and Unite and employers — the train operating companies (TOCs) and Network Rail. It also included the railway safety regulator at the Office of Rail and Road and experts from the Railway Safety Standards Board.

“Some companies like Network Rail have been very good and provided workers with masks and visors from the start,” TSSA policy advisor Rob Jenks told Labour Research. “The train operating companies were not as good.”

In April, the rail unions, most TOCs and Network Rail reached agreement on a set of Emergency Working Principles through the RICF which, he said, has helped a lot.

In May, the unions and employers also agreed a Social Distancing Agreement as a set of principles that individual employers should then implement in their respective companies following discussion with the appropriate union reps in their organisation.

Passenger numbers began to pick up in the summer following the lockdown earlier in the year, but the increase in COVID cases since September meant they began to reduce again (see box). Pre-COVID, there was already a trend showing a reduction in the number of annual season rail tickets purchased, and an increase in the number of standard daytime tickets purchased, as a result of flexible working arrangements including homeworking.

Research published by the CIPD HR professionals’ body in July suggests this will continue. It shows employers expect the proportion of people working from home on a regular basis, once the crisis is over, to increase to 37% compared to 18% before the pandemic. They also expect the proportion of staff who work from home all the time to rise to 22% post-pandemic compared to 9% before lockdown measures started to be imposed in March 2020.

Jenks said he fears for “what the railways will look like in the future”. The government has made clear its anti-trade union agenda, including threatening to restrict industrial action on the railways. It has also emphasised that it wants to pay back the money it has borrowed during the pandemic.

Jenks added that the government has taken a firmer grip on the railways during the crisis through Emergency Measures Agreements (EMAs) and Emergency Recovery Measures Agreements (ERMAs — see box on page 11) “and we are concerned about the next round of annual pay claims with TOCs.

“There are fears the government will take greater control in terms of saving money, driving down terms and conditions, and cutting jobs now it has the biggest stake in passenger train companies and more direct control.”

Some commentators have described EMRAs — which transport secretary Grant Shapps said “are designed to bring the rail franchising system to an end” — as a stepping-stone to rail nationalisation. But unions point out that the trains are still being privately run and money is still going to the private TOCs (see Labour Research, October 2020, page 4).

The RMT called on the government to “cut out the middleman and bring all UK rail franchises into public ownership once and for all”. It said any government plans to use the new EMRA contracts to move to a new privatisation system modelled on the type of management contracts already used on the London Overground would mean “profits and dividends will continue to flow out of UK Railways into the pockets of train operating companies and shareholders rather than be reinvested in our railways”.

Rail unions are calling on both the Westminster and Scottish governments to follow the example of the Welsh government, which announced in October that it would bring rail services in Wales back into public ownership.

ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said although this decision has been announced in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, in order to protect services for passengers, to maintain jobs, and to keep the momentum of the South East Wales Metro project — designed to link people and jobs across South East Wales, “we hope that it sends a message to the governments at Holyrood and Westminster about the way forward for our industry”.