NSW: Maintenance workers paid to do nothing union

AAP General News (Australia)
08-09-2000
NSW: Maintenance workers paid to do nothing union

SYDNEY, Aug 9 AAP - While the CityRail train system runs off the tracks, more than
100 rail maintenance workers are paid to sit in a workshop and do nothing, a union said
today.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) organiser Mark Hoban said more than 100
maintenance workers at Rail Service Australia's Chullora workshop had been effectively
hung out to dry after the workshop was privatised.

"We have at the moment 100 maintenance staff from the Chullora railway workshop sitting
in a holding pen with nothing to do, at a time when we are seeing the railway system falling
down around our ears," he said.

"We know why it is happening - it's because of privatisation, the break-up of the rail,
contracting out, outsourcing and project management ... that's why we are seeing this
rail system crumbling around our ears."

The CityRail network has been plagued by a series of mishaps over the past few months,
including drivers running red lights and several derailments.

The maintenance workers today rallied outside a meeting between unions and Rail Services
demanding they be given real jobs.

"These workers have been herded into a holding pen with the expectation of finding
a real job and they are prepared to go out and work wherever they can in the railway system,"

he said.

"The workers are paid every day to come to work and do nothing.

"They don't want a golden handshake, they don't want redundancies, they want real jobs."

Rail Services Australia had made promises under the displaced employment policy but
nothing had been finalised.

"What we have seen is 155 years of experience lost to NSW rail by having these workers
placed in this holding pen."

AAP nd/maur

KEYWORD: TRAIN UNION

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