Rail jobs vacant to save millions
THE NSW Government has been accused of deliberately delaying filling job vacancies on Sydney’s crisis-plagued rail network to save tens of millions of dollars.
NSW
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THE NSW Government has been accused of deliberately delaying filling job vacancies on Sydney’s crisis-plagued rail network to save tens of millions of dollars.
Documents obtained by The Saturday Telegraph reveal Sydney Trains saved $52 million from its budget by “delays in filling vacant positions.”
The documents show that while Sydney Trains was forced to spend an extra “$10 million on overtime” and “$29 million in redundancies” from July 2016 to March 2017, the costs were offset by coming almost 5 per cent under budget in their employee spend during the same time period.
The revelation comes as union bosses yesterday met Transport Minister Andrew Constance for the first time since they revealed their plans to strike on January 29 over their ongoing pay battle.
While Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW Secretary Alex Claassens last night said at this stage the strike was “still going ahead”, The Saturday Telegraph understands there is now a chance it could be called off on Monday if the parties can reach a pay agreement over the weekend.
Lack of staffing has caused major contention within the RTBU, with Mr Claassens claiming in some cases drivers and signal workers were being put at risk of fatigue due to excessive overtime.
Staff shortages were also blamed for the train meltdown last week that resulted in delays and cancellations across the network, with the situation becoming so dire Sydney Trains bizarrely told city commuters to find another way home.
Opposition Leader Luke Foley accused the government of “deliberately understaffing” the train system.
“The NSW Government deliberately held off filling vacancies on the railways in order to cut costs. They have deliberately understaffed Sydney’s train system,” Mr Foley said.
“Commuters saw the result of that last week.”