\n<\/p>\n
A London Underground worker who was unfairly sacked after whistleblowing about his concerns over exposure to asbestos and other toxic dust has said he wants all tube passengers to know about the potential hazards his case has revealed.<\/p>\n
Micky Steeds, a former professional boxer from Aveley in Essex, started working for London Underground in 2018 cleaning up decades of dust from vents, lift shafts and inverts \u2013 confined channels underneath station platforms for cabling.<\/p>\n
It was a filthy job that left him and his colleagues looking like chimney sweeps. He said the dust was sometimes so thick he could not see his hands. On one shift at Tottenham Court Road, Steeds\u2019 cleaning gang disturbed so much dust it set off the station\u2019s fire alarms.<\/p>\n
When Steeds discovered the dust could contain dangerous levels of asbestos and other substances including chromium, arsenic, silicates and iron oxide, he began raising concerns, his employment tribunal heard.<\/p>\n
The tribunal heard that for the first 15 months he was not fitted with a proper protective mask. Sometimes he had to use paper masks, which became blackened with dust after use.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Micky Steeds, centre, with two of his colleagues after their shifts as cleaners for London Underground.<\/span> Composite: supplied<\/p>\n He was given training on how to deal with asbestos, but only after he had been cleaning asbestos-sheathed cables with stiff vacuum brushes for 19 months. \u201cWe had been smashing it up for nearly two years [before] we did a course on how not to disturb it,\u201d he told the tribunal.<\/p>\n Steeds said he had also been alarmed that the hazardous waste he was vacuuming up was not safely disposed of. The tribunal heard that in March 2023 he had told one of his managers: \u201cWe\u2019re fucking cowboys here, we\u2019re dumping hazardous waste in general waste bags. I have looked at the information and we are supposed to be double bagging and disposing this as special waste, but it\u2019s being put in a mixed commercial general skip.\u201d<\/p>\n In May, a judge-led tribunal concluded that this, and several other complaints by Steeds, was whistleblowing, amounting to protected disclosures under the Employment Rights Act 1996. His beliefs were \u201cgenuine and reasonable\u201d, the panel found.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone who gets on those trains needs to know about it. People are being put in danger down there,\u201d Steeds said.<\/p>\n His complaints were rejected by London Underground managers, who insisted the work was safe and that cleaning practices did not disturb the asbestos. But the tribunal found \u201call sites had asbestos reports and it was clearly present and potentially disturbed by dry cleaning\u201d.<\/p>\n It also found that London Underground had fallen short of \u201cdemonstrating compliance\u201d on hazardous waste disposal. It said: \u201cThe failure to dispose of hazardous waste appropriately may give rise to criminal and civil liability.\u201d<\/p>\n The tribunal noted that this \u201cmay lead to other workers, and the public generally, being exposed to hazardous waste, including asbestos. [Steeds\u2019] belief in the failure, and in the public interest, was reasonable. This was a protected disclosure.\u201d<\/p>\n Steeds was sacked in August 2023 after being signed off work with anxiety. The tribunal found he had been given an \u201cunfair ultimatum\u201d to either retract his complaints and return to work, or be dismissed. There was strong evidence, it said, that Steeds had had to \u201caccept his complaints were wrong\u201d as a condition for discussing his future employment.<\/p>\n The judgment said London Underground had failed to treat Steeds\u2019 complaints as whistleblowing and had unfairly dismissed him. \u201cThe reason, or principal reason, for dismissal was that he made protected disclosures,\u201d the panel said.<\/p>\n <\/span>The blackened inside of paper mask used by London Underground workers when cleaning dust.<\/span> Photograph: Handout<\/p>\n Michael Ballantyne, Steeds\u2019 solicitor from James & West Law, said the case showed the \u201cstigma\u201d facing whistleblowers. \u201cSteeds was viewed as a troublemaker from the start and expected to fall in line. When he stood his ground, [London Underground] closed ranks and Steeds was given an ultimatum: either retract his disclosures or be fired.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m glad to see the tribunal agreed this was unreasonable and unjustified. This is an important win for whistleblowers and a good lesson for employers.\u201d<\/p>\n Steeds said he felt vindicated by the judgment and described it as his \u201cbest achievement\u201d above his boxing wins. \u201cI was gutted that it was a reserved judgment because I wanted to see their smug faces in court,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey weren\u2019t just ignoring me, they were telling me I was wrong and everything is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Steeds urged London Underground to safely remove hazardous material and stop claiming it was safe. He said: \u201cThey\u2019ve got to get rid of the asbestos somehow. It\u2019s in the caulking, the cables, the fire doors.\u201d<\/p>\n Steeds alleges he witnessed bags of hazardous dust being tipped on tracks to avoid carrying them. He said: \u201cThe dust used to get dumped on the track. I saw it happening. And when the train goes by \u2013 boof \u2013 everyone is breathing that shit in.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to make people aware of what they are breathing in. It\u2019s not just dust, it\u2019s hazardous waste and they don\u2019t know that. I personally don\u2019t travel on the tube. I\u2019d rather get a bus.\u201d<\/p>\n London Underground is planning to appeal against the judgment. A Transport for London spokesperson said: \u201cWe have strict controls in place, in line with the government\u2019s control of asbestos regulations, which ensure customers and staff are not at risk from exposure to asbestos when travelling or working on the tube network.<\/p>\n \u201cOur specialist teams monitor and manage locations where asbestos has been found to ensure the safety of everyone travelling or working on the network.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A London Underground worker who was unfairly sacked after whistleblowing about his concerns over exposure to asbestos and other toxic dust has said he wants all tube passengers to know about the potential hazards his case has revealed. Micky Steeds, a former professional boxer from Aveley in Essex, started working for London Underground in 2018<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":51236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[10894,1661,736,1577,5522,1146,14448],"class_list":{"0":"post-51235","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-dust","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-risk","11":"tag-toxic","12":"tag-underground","13":"tag-users","14":"tag-whistleblower"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=51235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51235\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/51236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=51235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=51235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=51235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}