CONDUCTORS working for Southern Railway are to stage fresh strike action.

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has confirmed strike action has been called by members of the RMT union for Tuesday next week (June 21).

The train company say they will force through plans to implement its new on-board across the Southern network in August.

Conductors are against the move which will remove their safety role for being responsible for closing the doors on services.

However the train company say the new role of on-board supervisor will protect all their conductors’ jobs, will keep them on trains but re-focusing their tasks in favour of face-to-face customer service to passengers.

The company say that the responsibility for closing train doors will move from the conductor to the driver as they already do on over 60% of the 3,200 trains operated on the entire GTR network.

Talks between Southern bosses and the RMT ended at the conciliation service ACAS without a resolution.

Members of the RMT have already staged 24 hour strikes in April and May.

The company say any further strikes are “entirely unnecessary”.

Govia Thameslink Railway chief operating officer Dyan Crowther said in a statement: “Despite six months of talks, the RMT gave us no practical plan to implement the new role at ACAS – instead we have this announcement of a totally unnecessary strike. We now have no option but to confirm the implementation of the new role.

“This new on-board role will keep people on trains, and re-focus their roles on assisting passengers. No-one is losing their job, and as many services will have someone on board as they do today.

“We know that many passengers are experiencing a poor service at the moment, that’s why we need to bring in these changes as quickly as possible.”