Saturday 1 April 2017

The Curious Case Of The Sacked Tube Worker...

London Underground workers are to vote on whether to strike over the sacking of a colleague after an altercation with a fare dodger.
What type of 'altercation'? If you believe the Tube management's version, it seems to imply some sort of physical attack, unprovoked, by their staff:
Phil O’Hare, General Manager for the Jubilee line, said: “Following an appeal, the decision to dismiss our member of staff was upheld.
"Our investigation included reviewing extensive CCTV footage and we are confident that this footage completely contradicts the account of the individual in question.
"We are, therefore, satisfied that the conduct was not in line with the standards we expect.
"As part of the established disciplinary process, a senior level review of the case is now underway.
"We take a zero tolerance approach to violence against our staff and expect our employees to adhere to acceptable standards of conduct when dealing with our customers."
 Sounds serious. What's the opposing view?
Lee Cornell is a CSA at London Bridge with over 10 years exemplary service. He is a dedicated, honest and proactive member of staff. His crime was to go to assist a pregnant member of staff who had been physically assaulted by a fare evader. The person who abused and assaulted Kirsty Watts then punched Lee twice and stole his glasses.
Lee reacted to get his property back and prevent a further assault on him. He pushed him into a wall and when he got his property back he walked away. The fare evader continued to try and fight any other LUL staff who came near him. He even tried to head butt Lee Cornell again. Lee never reacted. He once again walked away.
LUL have summarily dismissed Lee. For "losing control"
 Hmmm...
3 members of staff were assaulted. The CCTV shows absolutely what the RMT are saying is true.
Someone is lying. The CCTV would appear to be key. Maybe TfL will release it, so we can all judge for ourselves?

I'd hate to find myself agreeing with strike action, for once in my life. But when you see stuff like this in the 'Express', you begin to wonder what's really going on here:



I also saw a report on Twitter (can't locate it now) that LuL were removing those 'do not assault our staff' posters. If true, this seems like a needless escalation.

Who was this fare evader? We aren't told of any arrest. Was he a protected species?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I saw some guy trying to avoid paying his fare between Stranraer and Glasgow. He called the ticket collector a "prick."
At the next station he was offloaded by two transport police chaps.
Problem solved.
If your quoted case is true then the men are right to strike because you need management support in incidences where employees have to defend themselves when no transport police are on hand.

Lynne at Counting Cats said...

Like Julia I wonder. What group jumps on the aggrieved victim train when they perceive a "look" or in this case a "smile" as inflammatory?

JuliaM said...

"If your quoted case is true then the men are right to strike..."

That's my feeling too, which is a very uncommon one. But I've often seen fare evaders at Southend, and it irks me to see them get away with it because the ticket staff are afraid to challenge the obviously violent scum.. :/

"What group jumps on the aggrieved victim train when they perceive a "look" or in this case a "smile" as inflammatory?"

Clearly the sort of white nationalists that beat up refugees in Croydon... ;)