I'm no cynic but...
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I don't know how relevant this is to the current Sunday farce [it's as if Mike Ashley had bought Northern Rail rather than HOF] but it has to become known to the general public that although the rail industry is a 24/7 business, the staff are contracted to work according to their rosters which are Monday to Saturday inclusive. Sunday's are NOT compulsory and never have been. Now if a positive return for working on a Sunday is available then I'm sure that there would be plenty of volunteers, but if staff are treated like sh1t on their weekday rosters then there is always the likelihood that a blanket refusal will instead be opted for as a form of protest.
Just out of interest, there was a train drivers dispute during the early 1980's over an issue known as 'flexible rostering'. ASLEF was a strong union in those days and the union leader, Ray Buckton, just would not accept a situation where a sacrosanct 8 hour roster would be scrapped in favour of individual daily rosters that could be as little as 7 hours one day and 9 hours on another, with a four weekly averaging out of 156 hours over that period. The dispute went on for several weeks before some sort of 'agreement' was achieved, possibly with a few quid thrown in. It should be known that Sunday working remained non-compulsory and that this situation was to remain to this day.
The railway industry of the 1980's is a very different industry of today and although none of the drivers of that time will any longer be a railway employee, it doesn't rule out any bloody mindedness being carried forward to the present day.
Just out of interest, there was a train drivers dispute during the early 1980's over an issue known as 'flexible rostering'. ASLEF was a strong union in those days and the union leader, Ray Buckton, just would not accept a situation where a sacrosanct 8 hour roster would be scrapped in favour of individual daily rosters that could be as little as 7 hours one day and 9 hours on another, with a four weekly averaging out of 156 hours over that period. The dispute went on for several weeks before some sort of 'agreement' was achieved, possibly with a few quid thrown in. It should be known that Sunday working remained non-compulsory and that this situation was to remain to this day.
The railway industry of the 1980's is a very different industry of today and although none of the drivers of that time will any longer be a railway employee, it doesn't rule out any bloody mindedness being carried forward to the present day.