20th February 2008
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A meeting has been arranged with London Midland for Monday 25th February. We will continue to keep you updated on these discussions
Following a meeting with London Midland on the 13th February they proposed that any resolution to the dispute must be on a shared cost basis which we cannot accept as our members have paid their correct contributions. We do not believe that our members should be pay twice for their pension entitlement.
We have therefore instructed our members to withdraw their labour for 48 hours from 00:01 on 28th February 2008.
We still remain committed to resolving this dispute to the satisfaction of our members
Following our meeting with London Midland on the 29th January they have advised that the wrong salary data was used in compiling the original figures.
The revised figures now show that the impact to Drivers in most cases is less than £1,000 per annum in the annual pension which they would have expected received, with a smaller number of Drivers affected in excess of £1,000
We again met with London Midland today in relation to the current dispute.
They provided us with a breakdown of the implications to each individual affected, which in most cases costs Drivers in excess of £1,000 per annum in the annual pension which they would have expected to receive. A small minority of Drivers are not affected to this degree.
It should be noted that the information provided to us does not identify the individual Drivers by name.
We have arranged another meeting for 6th February to discuss how the company propose to seek to resolve the dispute.
We will update you further following this meeting
On the 10th December 2007 we again met with London Midland and a representative from Railway Pensions Management.
The discussions continue to be positive and the company have agreed to obtain estimates from Pensions management reflecting members pensions had the pay awards been applied to the all service element. This is so that the effect on individuals and the total cost can be obtained.
Obviously this will take time to compile and we have agreed to meet again on the 29th January 2008
We have received letters from both London Midland and LOROL seeking talks on finding a mutually acceptable solution to the dispute.
In light of this the Executive committee have suspended the current action on both companies to allow these talks to take place in a constructive manner.
We intend to enter into meaningful discussions with LOROL and London Midland to bring this dispute to a satisfactory conclusion.
The Executive committee would like to thank all our members who have given 100% support during this dispute.
We believe that it is due to the solidarity shown by you all that we are now able to enter into these discussions.
Following several meetings between Aslef and Silverlink, we have been unable to reach an agreement to resolve the dispute.
Given the timescales involved with the franchise change we again offered Silverlink binding arbitration, which they were unable to commit to.
We still remain committed to bringing this dispute to a satisfactory conclusion.
We have produced a flyer to explain the dispute to the passengers. Download it here
Click Here for the ASLEF press release
You may have received a letter from Silverlink managers stating you will lose around £900 if you take action on all six days. All this demonstrates is, yet again, Silverlink managers don't understand their own agreements as the drivers' rostering process means you wouldn't be booked to work on every strike day. D'oh!
Yes 153
No 16
Strike Dates:
26th October
2nd November
9th November
16th November
23rd November
30th November
We now hope that we will be able to enter into meaningful discussions with Silverlink to resolve this dispute.
Silverlink claim to have an agreement with ASLEF from 1997 that allows them to only apply pay increases to the post-restructuring element of Drivers’ pensions. Meaning that the pensions of Drivers employed before restructuring have not been fully increased inline with pay awards.
There is NO agreement with Silverlink which freezes pensionable pay at pre-restructuring levels.
It was very difficult to identify problems earlier, since the only evidence in our possession was individual statements, which were all different. The Company say they have “acted in an open manner” and that “changes to pensionable pay have been visible to employees through their annual pension’s statements”. The statements we have seen do not substantiate this claim. In fact, only one year reflects Silverlink’s view that pre-restructuring pension should not be increased. The 1999, 2003, 2004 and 2005 statements ALL show that pay awards should have been applied equally to pre and post restructuring elements of pension.
In February 2006 the Silverlink Employee Relations Manager produced a letter stating that “increases to All Service Pensionable Pay are based on the percentage increase for the relevant Pay Award”. Which is exactly what we say should happen!
We believe that as Silverlink are at fault, they should foot the entire bill to put things right.
Yes, only those who started before re-structuring have lost out. However, it does not matter whether it affects one Driver or 300 Drivers, if it’s wrong, it’s wrong and we need to take action to put it right!
Apparently whilst not admitting liability the company has been telling those who ring them up that it will cost individuals £7k to address the situation. More information that they have not shared with us (how has this been calculated?) and also we would expect the company to fully fund anything arising out of their actions.
Strong support will focus the attention of the employers, be they Silverlink or the new franchise holders. Support for the action will get them back to the negotiating table and hopefully we will be able to reach an amicable settlement with Silverlink or their successors.
| District Organiser | |
| Mick Whelan | 07796696450 |
| Executive Committee Member | |
| Dave Calfe | 07710820408 |
| Company Council | |
| Dick Fisher | 07920451316 |
| Eddie Chick | 07920451318 |
| Danny Murphy | 07920451254 |
Download Q&A Document