A UNION has warned that fans travelling to next month’s Scottish Cup final could be hit by strike action by rail staff.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) will hold talks with ScotRail today in a bid to resolve a dispute over “cuts” to the CCTV security monitoring team.
The TSSA claims CCTV staff are “overstretched” after ScotRail accepted 17 applications for voluntary redundancy. It has also criticised nightshift cover plans and wants staff numbers restored to previous levels. If no agreement is reached today, TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes plans to raise the issue with Transport Minister Humza Yousaf during a meeting at Holyrood tomorrow.
Unless a solution is found, the union will consult members about strike action over the weekend of May 19 and 20. Celtic will play Motherwell in the Scottish Cup final on the Saturday. Cortes said members have warned ScotRail that its “constant reorganisation is damaging their ability to keep the network secure”.
The TSSA claims the specialist security monitoring team was reduced by 20 per cent when 17 of 84 staff were accepted for voluntary redundancy last year. It says none were replaced and that that means numbers are too low to ensure rotas are not overstretched or to meet the demand for nightshift staff.
Cortes said: “The ScotRail’s decision to impose a nightshift contract on workers who have no wish, or experience, of working nights has provoked much anger and returned an overwhelming mandate for strike action from the TSSA CCCTV team.
“Left to their own devices, Abellio’s regard for safety has left us running our railways in Scotland on a wing and a prayer. We have crisis talks with them but I’m not hopeful that they will see the light.
“If Abellio have not found a satisfactory solution by the end of these talks, then it falls to Humza Yousaf to order them to sort the problem out. If not, our members will be consulted on striking over the Scottish Cup final weekend in May.”
ScotRail said earlier that the changes would enhance safety and suggestions otherwise were “wrong and misleading”.
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