THE main Edinburgh-London rail operator has been accused of training up a "secret scab army" to thwart potential strikes by staff amid fears that it is poised to axe hundreds of jobs.
Britain's largest transport trade union, the RMT, accused bosses behind the Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) franchise of running empty trains along the route as part of a training exercise involving management and other grades to ensure that there would be employees available to take over the posts of train managers and on-board crew in the event of industrial action.
In a memo issued today[tue], RMT accused VTEC of "deliberate and outrageous provocation" as it claimed the company "are secretly training up a scab army recruited from across the country to breach the rules and take on the jobs of current train managers and on-board crew".
A company spokesman said this was routine "contingency" planning intended to limit disruption to passengers.
VTEC is operated by a Stagecoach-Virgin consortium, with Perth-based Stagecoach as the 90 per cent stakeholder.
It took over the East Coast franchise in March 2015.
However, rumours are rife that revenue from the former taxpayer-owned franchise has been lower than expected.
The RMT memo continued: "The union has learnt that VTEC have been operating empty trains on East Coast routes to train up 'volunteers' from management and other grades hauled in from all corners of the UK in preparation for possible strike action over massive cuts being planned to jobs and services across the franchise."
RMT said planned job losses and changes to terms and conditions were an "open secret", with engineering and depot staff, train guards and managers, and management and supervisor posts among those it suspects are at risk.
The union said customers will also lose out amid plans to close station travel centres.
Mr Cash added: “There is continuing speculation that Virgin/Stagecoach seriously overbid for this franchise when they snatched it away from a highly successful public sector operation that was delivering for the British people both in terms of services and finances.
"There are strong rumours in the industry that VTEC may be losing up to a million pounds a week.
"Now it is becoming clear that in response to the financial crisis, and in order to maintain profits, they are gearing up an unprecedented package of cuts and attacks on the workforce – cuts that they know would be fought wholesale by the unions with every tool at our disposal.
"It is now also clear that they have moved straight onto a union busting war-footing, training up a scab army in secret in an act of provocation that makes a mockery of the negotiating process."
A spokesman for VTEC said: "We always want to provide the best customer experience possible, and contingency planning is a key part of this.
"We proactively plan for a range of scenarios where we may need to keep our services running under extraordinary circumstances so that we can provide as full a service as possible.
"None of this has been done in secret - it is something we have been doing since the start of our franchise and under previous franchise agreements."
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