‘WE ARE here to stand up for the hard working people, we are abused and refused, we have been roundly abused numerous times,’ Hared Ali, RMT member and sacked London Underground cleaner, told News Line on a lively picket/ protest outside City Hall yesterday morning.
The protest was organised by the RMT on behalf of 33 sacked London Underground cleaners, who unfurled their banner outside London Mayor Johnson’s offices at Tower Bridge.
‘Justice for the 33’ the banner said as the sacked workers kept up loud chants.
‘London Underground, Do the right thing’, ‘Boris Johnson, do the right thing, TfL do the right thing’, as well as ‘Boris Johnson shame on you.’
As an example of the abuse, Ali explained: ‘We were told we had to go for an assessment to apply for the same jobs that we used to do. But at the assessment I was told my results do not meet the benchmark.
‘I challenged them. “May I see the results?” and the assessor said, “We will e-mail you,” but he never did.
‘It is a job that I have been doing for the last five years.
‘I believe the assessment was an absolute fit-up. The classic example of a management question was, “How can you direct a customer from A to B?”
‘I said, “I have done it with professionalism and politeness”, however the assessor informed me, “I’m very sorry this is not the way we want it”.
‘I asked “Is there any other method,” and his answer was, “I can’t disclose any further information”.
‘The RMT are working on the assumption that these assessments were rigged.
‘We are balloting and awaiting the results for an all-London Underground stoppage.
‘We desperately need to be reinstated immediately, I have a wife and kids to look after. It is unbearable really.’
Farah Khan, RMT member and sacked cleaner, said: ‘We are waiting for our jobs, the jobs we deserve and which we have been doing for the past 10-12 years through an agency Train People, who had the contract for London Underground.
‘London Underground terminated the contract, because of a European law which said Transport for London (TfL) had to give us travel passes, holidays and better wages.
‘We were given less than one month’s notice and sacked, which left us all out of a job.
‘The union is saying LU should have given us the jobs, but TfL are arguing that we should go through an interview for vacancies.
‘But when we went for interviews we were told we had failed. How can you fail a job that you have been doing for 10 years!
‘We want the RMT to ballot the members for strike action to win this dispute because employers are getting away with it.’
