Rail workers balloted over strike

About 120,000 commuters use Southeastern each weekday morning

Workers at a rail firm operating in the south east of England are to vote on possible industrial action over job cuts and working conditions.

Almost 1,400 Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members at Southeastern are being balloted over plans to shed 350 jobs.

The Govia-owned company runs trains in Kent, Sussex and London and serves 120,000 commuters in the morning peak.

A spokesperson said strike action was "totally unnecessary".

The RMT is also worried about safe working of new trains and "imposition" of new job descriptions and working conditions.

The ballot will open on March 16 and close two weeks later.

We hope that passengers will understand that in defending our members' jobs, safety and conditions we are also protecting the services they provide to the public Bob Crow, RMT

The union said the firm had failed to give assurances of no compulsory redundancies, despite "huge increases" in passenger revenue and profits.

RMT leader Bob Crow said: "Govia has been raking in profits on the back of massive fares hikes and it boasts shamelessly that it will protect profits by sacking rail staff and, if times get really tough, by leeching more public money."

He added: "It is not possible to slash jobs on the scale that Southeastern has announced without damaging services, and increasing the workload, stress and likelihood of abuse and assault on the staff who remain.

"We hope that passengers will understand that in defending our members' jobs, safety and conditions we are also protecting the services they provide to the public."

A Southeastern spokesperson said they "never compromise on safety".

'Protect jobs'

She said the job losses would come from redundancy and natural turnover over the next 12 months and 250 new jobs had been created for our new high speed services.

"It will be bad news for our passengers, employees and the economy if a strike goes ahead.

"In line with many other companies in the UK at the moment, this step is being taken in order for us to remain a successful organisation and to protect jobs for the majority of our employees."

Strike ballots are already under way among RMT members at South West Trains (SWT), First Capital Connect (FCC) and National Express East Anglia, threatening the worst disruption to train services since the series of national mainline rail strikes 15 years ago during a three-month signal workers dispute.

The union is also balloting members at London Overground in a separate row over working conditions.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, the UK's second biggest transport union, is balloting more than 7,000 staff at Network Rail in a separate dispute over pensions - and holding another at SWT over job losses.

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