PASSENGERS on Scotland's railways are being put at risk because of dwindling numbers of CCTV operators, unions have warned.
Transport staff union TSSA says it is now considering strike action over the issue and will ballot staff this week.
Last year union leaders suspended a strike action threat after plans to axe one third of 78 CCTV monitoring jobs were withdrawn.
But now the union say it is concerned that ScotRail still managed to achieve 17 voluntary redundancies from the CCTV section without being replaced.
It is also worried that moving some staff to night shifts without further recruitment will result in a "real risk to passenger safety".
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The staff monitor CCTV screens from thousands of cameras guarding all aspects of rail safety across Scotland's stations and rail track from a security operation nerve centre in Paisley and Dunfermline..
A TSSA source said: "The voluntary severance deals have hit the CCTV control staff and the subsequent changes of rosters are causing sufficient headaches that more staff may quit. The continuous change at ScotRail is quite a problem.
"We are very clear that voluntary severance is backdoor redundancy. ScotRail cannot make compulsory redundancies under its franchise agreement but it still makes money by cutting staff costs. VS is a way of getting round that and ScotRail has used it several times since 2015.
"We could not prevent staff taking VS although I wish we could. However we had the promise that everyone who wanted a job in CCTV would have one and the promise of negotiations over everything else so we engaged in that.
"But we are not making progress and ScotRail are still trying to force through the nightshift. We will therefore be balloting staff this week."
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TSSA leader Manuel Cortes, said: “Six months ago ScotRail proposed cutting nearly a third of their CCTV deparment – creating an unacceptable level of risk for Scotland’s rail users.
"Our members rightly fought back against that, but we had to ballot our members for strike to bring them to the negotiating table. Now we’re back to square one as the company doesn't appear to care that passenger safety will be compromised.
“The last six months have seen ScotRail attempt to force a nightshift on an already overstretched workforce – without any extra staffing at all. That means each shift will have fewer people carrying out the same amount of work!
"That is a real risk to passenger safety – fewer staff on shift means a greater risk that a live incident gets missed.
"Whether it’s a mugging on an unstaffed station, a suspect package at Glasgow Central or a vulnerable passenger – these incidents take place during the day. We need more staff on the cameras then, not less!"
Concerns about cuts to the CCTV staffing that surfaced in September, were described as "crazy" in the wake of the previous month's terror threat from Al-Qaeda who urged supporters to derail train carriages.
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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.
Staff of both the RMT and TSSA unions voted for strike action over the move by ScotRail, which is run by Netherlands-based Abellio.
The Paisley control room opened in 1996, and initially covered movements at virtually every railway station but the operation has since expanded its reach across the country.
Mr Cortes argued that there was not a business case for a night CCTV operation as trains do not run through the night.
"The cameras will be watching empty stations whilst making cuts to operators when stations are jam-packed," he said.
“To add insult to injury ScotRail are offering a mere £30 a week extra in shift allowance for wrecking our members’ personal lives.
"We tried negotiations but failed to get a reasonable response and for the last month ScotRail has refused even to talk to us.
“Our members are resolute and determined. Unless ScotRail come back to us with a reasonable offer that takes away the prospect of nightshifts strikes loom."
A ScotRail Alliance spokesman said the changes were about improving customer information and security not worsening it.
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The spokesman said: “We are upgrading our Paisley Centre and expanding our teams in Springburn Control Centre to provide better information to customers at times of disruption.
"We have invested more than £800,000 in new CCTV technology and training our people. We have also introduced 300 new body cameras for our employees in customer facing roles to improve security.”
All administrative, clerical, supervisory and managerial staff across Scotland, including its Glasgow headquarters were asked to consider voluntary redundancy in November, a matter of weeks after Abellio ScotRail announced a loss of £3.5m in its first full year operating train services in Scotland.
Abellio ScotRail would not say how many staff they wanted to leave, but stressed that there would be no enforced redundancies, as per the terms of its franchise
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