TPE: TSSA wins the right to bargaining on behalf of Revenue Protection Managers!

After less than 12 months of hard work TSSA has secured a voluntary collective bargaining agreement meaning that TPE formally recognises our union to represent the Revenue Protection Team bargaining unit (Revenue Protection Officers and Revenue Protection Assistants). TSSA now has the ability to elect recognised staff representatives from our members within this group of staff who are on Management grade contracts, a first within TPE!

The purpose of the representatives will be to Negotiate, Consult and Represent their trade union colleagues within the new collective bargaining group. As well as securing 2 staff representatives who will sit on a Revenue Protection Team Company Council. TSSA has also secured the ability for you to be represented by Health and Safety representatives for the very first time. TSSA already has the facility for 1 representative to attend Joint Negotiating Forum (JNF) alongside the Full Time Officer so this agreement enables the ability for that to be one of the Revenue Protection Team Company Council representatives.

What lead to us winning Collective Bargaining?

In June 2022 TSSA were approached by new members who had a strong desire to win collective bargaining (sometimes called recognition) for their group as they had wanted this for many years before joining TSSA and nothing had ever happened since the roles were created in 2004. Within a matter of weeks TSSA started the statutory process of applying for recognition and we soon saw many of the group Join our ranks to help us secure success by demonstrating that we had more than 50% +1 support for the initiative.

Ultimately, despite securing more than half the group into TSSA membership we didn’t need to complete the statutory process and instead we entered into talks with the company to secure a voluntary agreement.

TSSA has a track record of representing Management grades on the Railway

For the first time this will see TPE Management graded staff have a voice within the company to improve their lot with the protection and backing of TSSA as an independent trade union. As the only Trade Union that pushed for Management graded staff in the Train Operating Companies to receive the guarantee of an equitable pay rise, no less than any other grade we believe this is a natural fit and we would encourage other Management graded colleagues to Join TSSA if they want the right to be represented within TPE, (or other employers) they can do this via our website.

It is also important that colleagues from within the new bargaining group join TSSA to ensure that they have a say in who represents them as only TSSA members can stand for election, nominate candidates and vote in elections if we have more candidates than seats.

TSSA will then train and support your representatives and the employer will provide them with paid release to be trained to carry out their roles.

Representative Elections

There are 2 seats on the Revenue Protection Team Company Council, to be eligible for election candidates must:

• Have minimum of six months service with TPE
• Be currently working within the Bargaining unit
• Be a member of TSSA
• Be supported by not less that six TSSA members from within the bargaining unit

Candidates should use a nomination form, they should complete this and email it to Alan Valentine via by noon on Thursday 06/07/2023 

Those nominating candidates simply need to be a TSSA member from within the bargaining unit (i.e. an on Trains RPA or RPO) therefore colleagues can join the union in order to nominate candidates and the quickest way of joining is via our website.

If we receive more nomination forms than there are rep vacancies then we will to run an election to select the successful candidates.

Health & Safety Representative

If you are interested in standing to be become a Health and Safety Representative, you would follow a similar process to the above but need to complete a different nomination form. Once completed this can be emailed to Alan Valentine by noon on Thursday 06/07/2023 

Nomination forms for both positions can also be found the document tab of the TransPennine Express section of our website.