Light rail construction shirkers still slacking off

JUST days after a slack city construction worker was caught throwing around a tennis ball to alleviate boredom one of her colleagues has been spotted curling up with a good book.

• Taxpayers foot bill for workers who lounge and smoke
• Australia-wide crackdown on illegal workers

JUST days after a slack city construction worker was caught throwing around a tennis ball to alleviate the boredom of being paid to work, one of her colleagues has been spotted curling up with a good book — at the exact same time in the exact same place.

The billion-dollar state infrastructure projects have brought Sydney to a halt but workers seem in no hurry to get things moving, despite Transport and Infrastructure Minister Andrew Constance condemning the “mucking up”.

A worker gets stuck into a book.

He ordered the work-shy skivers on the Surry Hills section of the light rail to get moving — though his harsh words appear to have had little effect.

And yesterday an outraged Mr Constance called for the shirkers to be sacked.

Last week’s front cover.

“Bludging on dangerous worksites is a no-go. Altrac and Acciona contractors have been given a message and it clearly hasn’t sunk in. I expect them to sack anyone doing the wrong thing,” he said.

Last week a special investigation by The Daily Telegraph caught high-vis clad employees flouting safety protocols by smoking at work as well as spending large portions of their shifts glued to their phones.

But the outrage over the workers’ laziness seemed to have passed the Surry Hills bookworm by as she happily kept her eyes glued to her novel yesterday morning.

It was unclear what the tome was but it must have been a ripper read because the female worker was spotted carrying the book around with her most of the day at the junction of Holt and Devonshire streets where work on the $2.2 billion light rail continues to crawl along.

Some light rail reading.

Altrac Light Rail chief executive Glenn Bentley said: “A reminder of appropriate professional standards of behaviour has been provided to light rail traffic controllers during the last week. Traffic management is an important part of our approach to working safely.

“Any failure to follow the project’s high standards of safety and professional behaviour will lead to disciplinary action.”

The light rail is being built along George St, up through Surry Hills, to Moore Park and down through the southeast to Kingsford and Randwick.