London
Underground train drivers at Edgware Road and Barking depots are to ballot for
industrial action over the sacking of a Hammersmith and City Line train
operator.
General
secretary of the RMT union Bob Crow said: "Once more London Underground is
scraping the barrel in finding a pretext to sack a union activist."
The
driver was sacked after he was caught coming out of his squash club while off
sick with an ankle injury.
"Yet,"
Crow said, "The driver concerned has produced evidence that both his GP
and sports-injury therapist advised him that an increasing amount of exercise
would speed his recovery and therefore his return to work.
"That
evidence was simply ignored in both the original hearing and the appeal.
"To
make matters worse the member was sacked under a procedure that neither he nor
any of his colleagues had ever seen.
"London
Underground is once more making a mockery of its own procedures, and we have no
alternative but to ballot members for action – with a strong recommendation
that they vote ‘yes’.
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"We
are also asking London Underground to conduct an urgent review of industrial
relations at Edgware depot, which have now reached an all-time low," he
said.
