Queensland Rail fail: Unions refuse to accept responsibility

THE Acting Transport Minister said unions would come to the party in addressing Queensland’s “rail fail”. But unions are singing a different tune.

The Queensland Rail debacle culminated in the resignation of Stirling Hinchliffe as transport minister on Monday.

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UNION bosses have refused to accept responsibility for cosy workplace deals and plummeting productivity which contributed to southeast Queensland’s “rail fail”.

The Strachan Commission of Inquiry report found a 7 per cent reduction in train crew productivity between 2014 and 2016 was “due in part to more restrictive crewing rules agreed between unions and … management”.

The decline meant drivers were only operating a train for 29 per cent of their shift.

The report also heavily criticised the practice of relying on drivers to do large amounts of overtime to cover a shortage of drivers and restrictive train crew practices agreed to between unions and management.

The generous conditions awarded to drivers who work on a rostered day off include a 75 per cent penalty payment – which can boost drivers’ salaries by tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Owen Doogan denied the practice was a rort to bump up salaries for union members.

“Queensland Rail is phoning our drivers up begging them to work overtime,” he said.

Mr Doogan instead blamed QR management for the drop in productivity.

He said one of the negative changes made between 2014 to 2016 was “decentralising” routes so that train crews could work further away from their home depots, which increased travel times and reduced time spent driving.

“That, in our view, has created inefficiencies that we will be able to work with QR to try and resolve,” Mr Doogan said.

Labor frontbencher Mark Bailey – an RTBU member – has been tipped as a possible replacement for Stirling Hinchliffe to take over the Transport portfolio.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rode the rails at Doomben station yesterday. Pic: Tara Croser

He refused to criticise the union for its role in the rail fail through entrenching restrictive workplace practices or the over-reliance on ­overtime.

“It’s not the workforce’s fault in terms of this issue,” Mr Bailey said.

“The Strachan report was very clear. It identified systemic cultural issues in the management of Queensland Rail.”

The Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees also has coverage of some staff at QR but the RTBU has more members and a greater influence on negotiations with management.

The report found measures already taken to unwind restrictive workplace practices between Queensland Rail management and unions were insufficient to guarantee reliability in future.

“Queensland Rail has undertaken negotiations to increase flexibility around important crewing rules, such as suspending inflexible meal break rules, in order to improve productivity,” the report said.

“While these changes will have a substantial impact on (driver) demand, they will not be enough to ensure reliable services.”

Acting Transport Minister Jackie Trad – along with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and newly appointed QR board chair Phillip Strachan – met with union representatives on Monday “to articulate what needs to be done to move forward”.

“And that means, primarily, that we all – management, unions, government – need to be working collaboratively in order to implement all of the recommendations of the Strachan Report and to make sure that we build a strong, reliable, confident system,” she said.

Ms Trad said QR would “absolutely” start going outside the organisation to source new drivers.

“There are provisions within the enterprise bargaining agreement currently around recruiting externally,” she said.

“So what we need is we need management, unions, government, all focused on how we can recruit not only new drivers, but how we can expand the pool of trainers so that we are training the drivers we are recruiting as fast as possible.”