Press Release

10 March 2004

EWS staff deserve better than a bolt from the blue - TSSA

TSSA, Britain's second largest rail union, has described the handling of over a hundred proposed redundancies at EWS's customer service delivery centre in Doncaster as being a "bolt from the blue".

The company announced they would be reviewing the posts of 152 clerical and managerial staff on 28 February with jobs to be cut on 31 March. TSSA believes that this is an unacceptable period of time to deal with major changes in a constructive way. Management has, however, insisted that they would not budge from the time scale proposed.

TSSA has trade union recognition rights at the EWS centre, which legally entitles the union to collective bargaining over issues such as pay and conditions.

The union is appalled by the company's lack of loyalty to staff, many of whom moved their homes and families to Doncaster for the jobs after the company centralised their operations, only to be made redundant.

General secretary Gerry Doherty said: "We are extremely disappointed with the number of redundancies and would ask whether this is just an excuse to cut staff after the projected job losses at the end of the Royal Mail contract did not materialise.

"No evidence has been forthcoming to justify losses of this scale, with EWS saying it is just good housekeeping. But if that's the case it doesn't bear thinking about how many staff the company may shed during a time of real crisis."

ends

For further information, please contact:

Hannah Leggett press officer

Tel: (020) 7529 8059
Mobile: 07769 682806

Olly Husbands negotiations officer
Mobile: 07711 02945

Notes to Editors

1. TSSA represents 33,000 members in administrative, clerical, managerial, professional and technical jobs in the railways, buses, the London Underground, the travel trade, canals, ports and ferries, and road haulage.