 |
|
| Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen | |
| Founded | 1880 |
|---|---|
| Members | 18,500 |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Affiliation | TUC, STUC, ITF |
| Key people | Keith Norman, general secretary |
| Office location | London, England |
| Website | www.aslef.org.uk |
The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is the trade union representing train drivers in the United Kingdom.[1] Its current general secretary is Keith Norman. ASLEF is part of the International Transport Workers' Federation and the European Transport Workers' Federation.
The union was founded in February 1880 when a group of 56 drivers and footplate staff broke away from the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants following the failure of the 'all-grades' ASRS to support drivers who had had their wages cut and their working hours extended by the Great Western Railway in 1879. Despite the problems and divisiveness posed by breakaway unionism, ASLEF was a progressive unionTemplate:Fafct and supported the Independent Labour Party.
ASLEF is a small union (18,500 members in 2007) and has sometimes been characterised in the press as a "militant left-wing" union.
In the late BR period, drivers received a relatively low basic salary of around £12,000 per annum, supplemented by an extremely complicated series of enhancements for overtime. Sunday had never formed part of the basic working week for train drivers in the UK, being worked as overtime. Thus many drivers chose to work Sundays in order to make a better income. Essentially British Rail was run in all departments on an overtime culture to reduce overall wage bills of having to employ extra staff to fill what would be uncovered vacancies. This approach had obvious implications on fatigue and excessive hours, the awful result of which can be witness with the Clapham Junction rail crash
In the period immediately after the privatisation of British Rail in the mid-1990s, ASLEF negotiated improved pay and conditions of service for its members from the new train operating companies.
Train drivers are now amongst the best-paid associate professional ( as defined by UK government) workers in the UK, with the average salary in 2009 being in the area of £40,000 (passanger) and £33,000 ( freight) for a basic 35-hour week – often worked over four days rather than five. As a result, relatively few drivers choose to work overtime. This is a doctrine of most trade unions, to increase basic pay so the "overtime culture" is reduced or even eliminated, the hope being that more jobs will be created to cover the work that isn't covered by overtime. The obvious health and safety issues related to overtime and fatigue would also be virtually eliminated.
Contents |
In the BBC television sitcom The Young Ones, Rick gets everyone thrown off a BR intercity line when he tells the conductor that ASLEF is an anagram for "total and complete bastard".
|
|
Wikis
Search
