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The UK government remains firmly committed to the equality and human rights safeguards within the Northern Ireland protocol, Lord Frost has insisted. As PA Media reports, the Brexit minister made this point in a letter to Amnesty International. PA reports:

Article 2 of the protocol commits the UK to ensuring that Brexit will see “no diminution” of the extensive rights provisions that were enshrined in Northern Ireland as a result of the Good Friday peace agreement.

EU law underpinned many of the equality and anti-discrimination laws that flowed from the 1998 accord.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will walk out in a dispute over rosters.

The union said new shifts are being imposed on staff which will affect their work-life balance.

This strike is about the ripping apart of popular and family-friendly agreements that helped make the original night tube such a success. Instead the company want to cut costs and lump all drivers into a pool where they can be kicked from pillar to post at the behest of the management.

This strike action, and its serious consequences in the run-up to Christmas, was avoidable if the tube management hadn’t axed dedicated Night Tube staff and perfectly workable arrangements in order to cut staffing numbers and costs.

The RMT’s planned strike action is needless and it will threaten London’s recovery from the pandemic, despite no job losses and more flexibility and job certainty for drivers.

“While every other union has agreed to these changes and our staff have been enjoying the benefits of the changes since August, we’re willing to work with the RMT and review the changes after night tube services have returned.

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