Re: Countrylink

["Jack" <bd107@tsn.cc>]

Your guess is spot on...... the crews will be reduced by 1 north of
Grafton..... also the Passenger Attendant will be taken off all Canberra
services.... leaving a PSS  and an SPA  to man the 3 cars..... also talk of
1 coming off between Albury and Melbourne... it's called rationalisation
(yeah right!).... out of interest CountryLink have hired 20 casual passenger
attendants.... on 6 month contracts ...the first 8 are out and about running
around now... they are unable to do any safeworking and will work in the
buffet and do the luggage....  the reason they have been hired is that most
services on most days have been leaving Sydney short staffed.... Management
has allowed the OBS staff levels to dwindle to such a point that there are
not enuff pple left to do the work.. mangement's reasoning is that they want
to reduce the number of PA's on the trains and they will have enuff pple
left to run the reduced manning levels... without having to pay redundancies

Cheers
Jack

petan@ion.com.au wrote in message <3668c976.32479554@news.ion.com.au>...
>Hi,
>
>The XPT that made it to Murwillumbah last night [Friday] had some
>unusual staff in the guard's cabin. They [yes several] had heavy rank
>stripes on their shoulder pads,  of an older age group,  and clip
>boards. I also did not see them help the usual crew lift the heavy
>suitcases! Perhaps they did help inside the carriage and I might be
>rash judging them!
>
>The first thought I had was some sort of check team. I hope the number
>of staff is not to be reduced! If so, perhaps the cost of sending this
>"check team" should be counted as well. I mean, is it costing money to
>see if they can save money by cutting some worker's paypacket? I hope
>I am wrong!
>
>Cheers
>Peter Cokley