A UNION has suspended a strike action threat saying ScotRail has formally withdrawn its plans to axe 22 security-critical CCTV monitoring jobs.
The move by the transport staff union TSSA comes after one union official said the plan to slash CCTV monitoring staff covering hundreds of train stations across Scotland was "criminally negligent" as the cuts prompt terrorism fears and strike action.
Some 22 of the specialist staff who monitor a host of CCTV screens from thousands of cameras guarding all aspects of rail safety across Scotland's stations and rail track had been threatened with redundancy at the security operation nerve centre in Paisley and Dunfermline.
The move was described as "crazy" by some union officials concerned about last month's terror threat to railways as Al-Qaeda urged its supporters to derail train carriages.
Securing thousands of miles of track in the UK was “practically impossible” and attacks would cause “great damage and destruction”, the terrorist group said in an article in the group's magazine Inspire.
But the rail union RMT, whose members also voted for strike action say that while progress has been made in talks "at this stage our dispute remains on and there will be a full consultation with our members before the matter is considered again by the union's executive."
The TSSA announcement came on the day that an explosion on a Parsons Green Tube train in London was being treated as terrorism. Some 22 people are being treated in hospital for injuries.
TSSA Scotland organiser, Liz Warren-Corney, said there had been a "climbdown" by ScotRail.
"ScotRail's top brass seem to have got that message and have withdrawn the proposed 22 CCTV job losses and we will, for the time being, suspend the threat of strike action, get back to the talking table and hope ScotRail now have something meaningful to say," she said.
"It has been a long time in the coming and it's a great shame it took the threat of a strike to get them there.
" It would have been preferable all round if they had listened to our concerns about not stretching vital security staff so thin that they cannot be effective.
"This management attitude that you can cut staff to improve safety remains a concern to us. The terrorist attack on London's Tube this morning is a sobering reminder of what rail staff are up against right now.
"Collaboration with ScotRail's security staff is vital at all times, but in this time of heightened terror attacks, they are part of our national defence team."
Staff of RMT and TSSA had voted for strike action over the move by ScotRail, which is run by Netherlands-based Abellio.
Union officials believed the move affected one in three of all staff in Paisley and Dunfermline, but that includes non-dedicated CCTV monitoring staff.
Ms Warren-Corney added:"We are glad that ScotRail has finally decided to stop clobbering our members and is now minded to enlist our collaboration and talk meaningfully to us about any reorganisation plans they have rather than the all guns blazing approach they've adopted til now."
ScotRail has so far not responded to requests for comment.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel