South West Trains sack safety conscious stationmaster

Last train for station master Faletto

Here's another corporate moron deftly displaying super arrogance when it comes to health and safety laws and regulations. Every time we get such things happening, the company concerned says it is doing it for the community, the staff, the customers, Uncle Tom Cobley and all. But they're not. They are doing it for themselves. Or more correctly to safeguard themselves from any perceived lawsuit. So they are really slimy self-interested souls looking after number one. I do wish it would stop.

Lymington Stationmaster Ian Faletto has been sacked by South West Trains after pulling a shopping trolley dumped by vandals off the track. He simply wanted to stop the possibility of a tremendous train crash. It seems he was spotted on the track by CCTV. Mr Faletto said, ‘I can’t believe it after all I have done for them. What I did prevented an accident which could have derailed a train and injured passengers. I saw the trolley on the line and managed to remove it before the first train arrived that morning. Health and safety rules have gone too far when you prevent an accident and get sacked for it. I just want my job back.’

There's an irony here, that's for sure. Network Rail has finally owned up to the Potters Bar crash as being their fault, or their predecessor's (Railtrack). It took many years of legal wrangling to get the wretched corporates to see that they had been sloppy on the job. People got killed, yet it was the nature (now seemingly part of corporate DNA) of the company to try to blame others or wriggle out of responsibility.

What would South West Trains say if a driver had taken a train over the shopping trolley? What if death and injury had been caused? I don't think I'd put a bet on it, but I sense they'd try to blame somebody else. This health and safety is nothing of the sort on many occasions. It is all about fear of litigation. So the mean-minded, self-interested management sack a worker because he cares about his station, his staff, his customers. And he cared about his company.

There is a petition to get Mr.Faletto re-instated. Customers are outraged by the sacking. South West Trains is owned by Stagecoach plc. Maybe we could have a better approach. South West Trains can hardly afford such adverse publicity. They have a history of it. Punctuality declining. Price rises. Overcrowded trains. Overcrowded trains? According to this website South West trains tried to get a commuter arrested under anti-terrorist laws for photographing overcrowded trains.

Do we need corporate bosses like these? They give capitalism a bad name. They stifle free enterprise and they sniff their noses up at entrepreneurs. They need a good thrashing!


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1385895/Stationmaster-Ian-Faletto-sacked-stopping-accident-Lymington-Pier.html#ixzz1MRxsWC60

Posted in: employment tribunals,railways,South West Trains,Stagecoach