Re: Employment on Aussie railways

["Tezza" <tezza@atinet.com.au>]

beerhead@ noshortpints.net (Tom Clifton) wrote in message
>Hi, all.

>I know there's a few rail employees hanging out on this ng, and I have
>a few questions. Some may think I'm crazy for even expressing an
>interest, but here goes.

>I work as train crew (guard and emergency driver) for one of the
>private train companies in the UK, with operations through the Channel
>Tunnel (which of the 3?   I'm not    saying  in case someone tells
>the boss;-)). What I am wondering is what the prospects are for a UK
>national finding similar (or not-so-similar, but still railway) work
>in Australia.

>I understand that unless the job can't be filled locally, you have a
>lot of money or can meet certain criteria, the chances of doing
>anything more than flipping hamburgers in the black economy are pretty
>slim, but I don't know what things are like on Aussie railways.


>Is it generally difficult filling vacancies?



No.

>What are industrial relations like?


Apart from the waterfront and mines, both government and employer induced
disputes, fairly good.

>What sort of pay and time off can be expected in the train-crew
>grades?



FreightCorp Drivers in Sydney have a base rate of $39k+ for a full Driver,
which under the newly agreed Job and Work Re-design should take about five
years from date pof joining. The problem is, they haven't hired any new
Drivers off the street since 1990. They've been using up re-deployed staff
from CityRail.

CityRail I believe are still taking staff off the street to become station
assistants, who can then become guards and then eventually become Drivers. I
think their base rate is around $36k.

>Are drivers taken "off the street" for training or  promoted from
>existing grades? Maybe after 20 years service?


CityRail tried taking Drivers, off the street in 1990, but it was a massive
failure, so they reverted to taking them from the ranks of FreightCorp
drivers. Since FreightCorp was privatised, Drivers can only transfer over to
CityRail until 30/6/2000. I'm not sure what minimum time CityRail require to
be put in to become a Driver, but it shouldn't be more than about two years.
I know that in 1977, The minimum time as a station asistant was nine weeks,
then shunters school, then about six weeks as a shunter, then guards school,
then appointed as a guard. If this still stands it's just a matter of the
minimum time spent as a guard before you're allowed to apply to become a
Driver.

>The areas I would be interested in are NSW (South, Central or North
>coasts but not so much Sydney) and the Melbourne-Geelong area.


You can virtually forget about country NSW. FreightCorp is still downsizing.
God, I'm starting to talk Newspeak!

>Maybe I'm wasting my time but if you don't ask, you don't get to find
>out. If anyone has any answers to these questions or any other
>comments, please post; e-mails would be much appreciated.


I think your biggest problem would be migrating here in the first place.

Anyone please feel free to correct any mistakes I've made above.