Avanti West Coast Accidentally Asked Way Too Many People to Help Undermine a Strike

Avanti West Coast has been accused of “undermining strike action” by asking management and HQ staff to “volunteer” to cover the duties of striking catering staff at the train operator, who are protesting against short notice changes to shift patterns.

In an email seen by Novara Media titled “catering strike contingency: get onboard to support our customer promise,” Avanti management and HQ staff have been asked to “save the date and clear their diary” on the strike date of 7 June.

The email, intended for Avanti management and HQ staff, was accidentally sent out to the company’s internal communications list which includes front-line staff.

The internal email describes covering the duties of striking workers as “a fantastic opportunity to gain valuable first-hand experience of working directly with our customers” and as “helping keep our customer promise”.

In a follow-up email, Avanti said: “Earlier today you received an email in error titled Catering Strike Contingency: get onboard to support our customer promise. This email was meant for HQ colleagues, therefore, please disregard this email, there is no need to take any action.”

Avanti has offered to find hotel arrangements for any of the 120 volunteers who require it.

While the onboard catering role is described in the email as “non-safety critical,” front line Avanti staff have expressed concern to Novara Media that HQ and management staff won’t receive sufficient training to cover first aid, emergency evacuation and handling aggressive customers.

An Avanti spokesperson said that appropriate training will be provided.

Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary said: “It is no surprise that a company as appallingly run as Avanti would seek to use money and resources to try and undermine our strike action instead of negotiating with the union in order to seek a resolution.

“The best way they can support customers is by resolving the roster issue, which is giving staff short notice changes to shift patterns and severely affecting their work-life balance.”

“Instead, we are seeing the arrogance of Avanti who believe they can use senior management with no experience of catering for customers on trains to replace the skilled and professional service our members offer day in, day out.

“These actions by Avanti senior management are likely to anger our members and increase the likelihood of prolonging this dispute.”

This is not the first time the scandal-hit train operator has accidentally sent out information. In January, Novara Media revealed slides from an internal Avanti presentation showing the train operating company joking about receiving “free money” from the government.

The slide show, presented to the company’s executive team, described performance-based bonuses as “too good to be true.”

While Avanti publicly apologised for the “unacceptable wording” of the slides, internally the company launched an investigation into the source of the leak, interviewing a handful of staff who had been unwittingly sent an email containing a link to the presentation. The RMT described the investigation as a “vendetta” against staff.

In March, the government rejected a call from Transport for the North for Avanti to be stripped of its nine-year contract “at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Transport for the North, which represents Northern mayors, councillors, and business leaders, said that “a continuation of the current situation is unacceptable to the North.”

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who sits on Transport for the North, said “I have run out of patience. I cannot accept this railway being left in this perennial state of chaos.”

The government was accused by the RMT in March of a “cover-up” after the department for transport refused to publish a copy of the train operator’s contract.

In February, Avanti’s announcement that its onboard catering would become cashless was met with fury from the RMT, with Lynch describing the move as “fundamentally an attack on railway jobs and specifically onboard catering staff.”

The move to card only transactions will have a “detrimental impact” on “elderly passengers, low-income passengers and passengers who do not have bank accounts” said Lynch. The RMT have not ruled out an industrial response going forward.

An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said: “To minimise the impact of this strike on our customers we’ve asked office-based colleagues to volunteer for non-safety critical roles on this day, as we do with all strike action. We’re sorry for the inconvenience this industrial action will cause to our customers. We wish to resolve this dispute with the RMT when we meet them in due course.”