by Peter Lazenby in Leeds

TRANSPORT bosses face the threat of industrial action if they seek to take disciplinary action or dismiss workers with long Covid who need time off, RMT delegates vowed today.

The annual conference of transport union RMT in Leeds was told that employees absent from work as they go through the after-effects of the virus are being subjected to a “managing for attendance” process – with dismissal as the final stage of the process.

Liverpool delegate Billy Kimm told the conference: “Most operating companies say Covid now comes under ‘managing for attendance’ procedures.

“We have two members at Liverpool Lime Street with long Covid. One in his 30s cannot walk up a set of stairs. Imagine that – someone in their 30s not being able to walk up a set of stairs.

“What has the company done to help and support him? It has put him in stage one of the managing for attendance process, saying ‘we are looking after you.’ Stage four, you are out of the door.”

He said that the problems would continue because the pandemic is far from over.

“We are not out of this pandemic. We are still in it and we are going to be in it for a long time. We need to fight this,” he said.

Delegate Daniel Randall, who works on London Underground, said: “These policies are designed to discipline people for being ill, to sack them for being ill.”

He said the “punitive” attendance policies also discriminated against disabled people.

The conference unanimously backed a motion committing the union to “fight these developments with all means at our disposal including our various disputes machineries up to and including industrial action.”