c2c Rail Company news

3 March 2010

c2c freeze on annual leave issue

c2c have now frozen any offers on extending your annual leave. The Company have said this is because of the restrictions put on them by the Department for Transport as a consequence of Nation Express having handed the keys back on the East Coast Mainline franchise. The DfT is determined to strip the group of its other franchises announced a bidding timetable for the c2c franchise, which is up for renewal in May 2011. The government clearly feels that it is unacceptable for the company to go on running its other more profitable franchises having given up its loss making East Coast franchise.

Restrictions

With this decision and the restrictions which ar aplied to franchises being tendered it will be difficult to achieve any solution to the annual leave issue. We are therefore suspending our legal action and consulting further with our solicitors on what options will be available to progress this matter with the new owners. This also means that we cannot move on any changes to your terms and conditions until the restrictions are lifted at the end of the franchise.

What next?

We will now have to prepare for the fact that there it may no longer be National Express in charge of c2c. We should prepare ourselves for a new franchise owner and think about what that might mean for employees. It could be an opportunity to review all your terms and conditions with a new employer but it could also mean having to organise ourselves against further attacks on our railway and the people who work to make it successful.

Get involved

Your reps are working hard to make sure that our communication with you improves. You should be seeing us out on the line and we will be holding branch meetings in the future. We need to hear your views so that we can take them forward together. We will be looking to begin negotiations on pay for 2010 and issues around representation have also come up.

Please get in touch- it’s your union and we need to hear your voice!

Jessie Fenn - Regional Organiser