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Southern Rail STRIKE details



albionite

Well-known member
May 20, 2009
2,762
Hang on. That's not true. Southern even published the sickness rates in May, I think it was, and there were on average 3 days sick for every person. It was debated in this very thread.

No they didn't, they were asked to prove the figures which they failed to do.
 








Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
Thats a statement that is no prove. The transport select committee asked to show the prove so far they have not.
I know who I'm inclined to believe that when it comes to those figures. I'm a commuter and I know only too well how often trains were cancelled due to sickness over that period.

And further proof is Bozza's point that even the union is acknowledging that sickness rates are/were currently higher than when all this clusterf*ck started.
 


Blue Valkyrie

Not seen such Bravery!
Sep 1, 2012
32,165
Valhalla




Hastings gull

Well-known member
Nov 23, 2013
4,652
Thats a statement that is no prove. The transport select committee asked to show the prove so far they have not.

How on earth do you prove it? What a silly question to even ask. And for RMT it probably is just as well that a phone call saying you are sick, cannot be accepted as proof of actual sickness, as the guards may well not come out of it too well, unless you are naïve enough to think that just by chance at the time of the heightening of tensions, all of a sudden mass sickness broke out. There is, however, a basic contradiction here, is there not?; I presume that the graph and the info shows how many phoned in to say they were sick, and if you believe that, as RMT does, then you could argue that is indeed proof. If you are now saying that is not proof, then one can assume you think they were lying and that the claim of sickness was politically motivated.
 


Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
57,286
Back in Sussex
Just pulling out a couple of old posts because I can't be arsed to search for any more...

Interesting conversation with a member of SASTA staff this morning - apparently the 'staff sickness' epidemic that is responsible for a lot of cancelled trains today is largely, if not entirely, an unofficial strike action by SASTA staff.

I only have the person in question's word for this, so who knows. It does seem very...convenient, though.

Sort of. Guards have been bullied by GTR so many are not working their rest days-and why should they, especially when they have had all their privileges revoked including the ability to swap shifts and there are quite a few guards off sick - probably due to stress.
 


Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
Are they hiding anything about normal seasonal variation ?

Why don't they compare year on year ?

What are the figures for other businesses across the same weeks ?


Without the above answers, those figures are vulnerable to suspicions of SPIN.
If you read the figures they put it in context with pre-strike. They also state that 1 on 6 called in sick and I think I calculated it as over 3 days sick on average for each employee in a single month. That's abnormal for any business.

We've had all this debate before anyway. Go back and look at the thread for when these figures were published.
 






albionite

Well-known member
May 20, 2009
2,762
So what you are saying is that one small period in April when a few guards went off for a few days relating to stress from bullying,has lasted for 8months.???
 


Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
72,321
Maybe an interesting new tactic for the union could be to publicly declare a specific working week where every member of staff worked every rest day and took up all offers of overtime. Then monitor the stats. Would give a true picture of just how abysmal this failing franchise is. Tho they'd doubtless just then blame that week on Network Rail.
 




Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
So what you are saying is that one small period in April when a few guards went off for a few days relating to stress from bullying,has lasted for 8months.???
No. I'm saying that Southern published sickness rates for a single month. .

There's no point trying to infer that there were normal levels of sickness in the preceding or following months just because Southern haven't published the figures for those. Even according to the unions it's still been high compared with pre-strike figures.
 


Peter Grummit

Well-known member
Oct 13, 2004
6,772
Lewes
SASTA are now saying there will be service disruption EVERY DAY from the 6th December, whether there is a strike or not. This is an admission that they have insufficient staff and those they do have are entirely demotivated. Recruitment must be impossible. Not that they care as the Government is underwriting their financials.

Whoever you think is to blame for this unholy mess, are we in agreement that it can't continue like this?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 


Tom Hark Preston Park

Will Post For Cash
Jul 6, 2003
72,321
SASTA are now saying there will be service disruption EVERY DAY from the 6th December, whether there is a strike or not. This is an admission that they have insufficient staff and those they do have are entirely demotivated. Recruitment must be impossible. Not that they care as the Government is underwriting their financials.

This is the end result of SASTA having zero accountability. They've been progressively pushing the envelope of being rubbish, and nobody has ever slapped them down and forced them to run their franchise in a responsible manner, under pain of incurring hefty fines for non-performance. If they operated as any normal commercial company, they'd have gone into insolvency many months ago. Personally I find by far the most shocking aspect of this whole mess is the complete abdication of responsibility by government. It really is a national scandal.
 




Yoda

English & European


Blue Valkyrie

Not seen such Bravery!
Sep 1, 2012
32,165
Valhalla
SASTA are now saying there will be service disruption EVERY DAY from the 6th December, whether there is a strike or not. This is an admission that they have insufficient staff and those they do have are entirely demotivated. Recruitment must be impossible. Not that they care as the Government is underwriting their financials.

Whoever you think is to blame for this unholy mess, are we in agreement that it can't continue like this?

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
I fully expect we'll still be in the same situation in December 2017 and onwards until the government finally hang SASTA out to dry.
 










Buzzer

Languidly Clinical
Oct 1, 2006
26,121
But SASTA shot themselves in the foot by making guards get a sick note from the start of strike action, which signs them off for 7 days instead of allowing self certs for the odd one here and there. There is where the extra days have come from.
Where SOME of the extra days have come from.

Yes, Southern cocked up here as they have cocked up many things but 1 in 6 conductors had sick leave in May. That's exceptionally high. It's clear that the unions have used sickness as a weapon against Southern and exploited the new rules.
 


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