Article: Bus boom causes council staff crunch

[ozbob]

From the Brisbanetimes click here!

Bus boom causes council staff crunch

Bus boom causes council staff crunch
Tony Moore
September 15, 2010 - 6:01AM

A plan to add 125 new buses each year has caused a blowout in bus drivers' costs which could force Brisbane City Council to cap staff.

Council's budget review documents showed wages grew by 9 per cent, well over the 0.6 per cent increase it estimated to Queensland Treasury Corporation last year.

Council now employs 9533 staff, with the increase in bus drivers (170 of the extra 441) making up 39 per cent of the new employees last year.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman last night agreed with concerns raised by Council's Labor Opposition Leader Shayne Sutton.

"I take note of what the Leader of the Council Opposition said this afternoon and I have taken careful note of the questions she has asked," Cr Newman said.

"I believe I now have support, bi-partisan support, to actually do something about this."

Cr Newman said some staff areas may have to be capped to control employee costs.

"It might be that certain areas might have to be capped in terms of the number of staff," he said.

"Those are the sorts of things that I will be talking to the CEO about. I will be talking in the future to the Council chamber about that.

"But those are the sorts of things that really have to be done."

Staff numbers jumped from 9092 in 2008-09.

Cr Sutton said Labor wanted to know why the increase was so much larger than the estimate provided to Queensland Treasury Corporation when it did a credit review of Council in 2009.

"There is a big difference between a 0.6 per cent increase and a 9.19 per cent, Madame Chair," Cr Sutton said.

"I believe this Council and Brisbane residents need an explanation," she said.

Cr Sutton said Brisbane wanted further information from Cr Newman.

"What he has said is some kind of indication that he might be looking at getting rid of staff," she said. "That is the code to what the Lord Mayor was saying today."

Finance Committee chair Cr Adrian Schrinner said most of the employee cost increase was in annual leave, sick leave and long service benefits.

"That is up by 37.48 per cent. This is what is driving the big increase in staff costs," he said.

Cr Schrinner said the extra drivers were essential to maintain the promised growth of the bus fleet.

"We had to do that because we were buying new buses. Five hundred over the four-year term and the reality is more buses means more bus drivers. There is no way we can get around that."

[#Metro]

"We had to do that because we were buying new buses. Five hundred over the four-year term and the reality is more buses means more bus drivers. There is no way we can get around that."

Um, but there is...

Time to get Light Rail!
1 staff for 350 people-510 people! Labour cost efficiencies!
Time for Brisbane to stop pretending that Light Rail does not exist!!!

[#Metro]

The other alternative is for Brisbane City Council to sell off BT to the State Government, like Campbell Newman offered to earlier this year.

The BCC could still continue to subsidise PT as it does now, but it would be more like how the Sunshine Coast does it- through a levy that gets passed on to TL for new services.

[Jonno]

Our a private operator

[#Metro]

The "efficiency" of a private operator vs a public one (and vice versa) should be proven not just assumed.

Three alternatives need to be compared:

1. Existing BT provision
2. 'Improved' BT provision (or provision by a QLD Gov owned operator)
3. Private (contracted) operation

Page 80 & 81 has a section on this

[Jonno]

Agree but I know where I would place my bet on this one

[somebody]

Agree but I know where I would place my bet on this one

You're in favour of private ownership?  Knock me over with a feather.

[#Metro]

Hmm. The State Gov does not seem to enthusiastic, it seems repulsed if anything by the suggestion.
Which leaves two other options- BT continues with BCC (will BCC cope?) or BCC gives up and privatises BT.
If the article is anything to go by, the bus operation is beginning to interfere with the Council's other functions- hence the idea of
capping staff elsewhere in the BCC raised in the article.

IMO it should go to QLD Gov, or TransLink!!!
... I don't think it would have as much issue with running services beyond the council boundaries...

More bus drivers are needed and they might be hard to find, which is going to put upwards pressure on costs regardless of whether it is private or public. I'm guessing this is party a product of running so many buses, on long routes which are direct to the CBD where there is 1 staff is required for 65 people.

Raising the rates is an option but this is very unpopular and Brisbane residents already pay $384 per rateable property annually for PT, the highest in Queensland IIRC.

Another option would be to cut back on direct services and feed rail or feed trunk articulated bus/BUZ routes, but this is controversial.

I'm sure they will sort it out somehow.  

[somebody]

Hmm. The State Gov does not seem to enthusiastic, it seems repulsed if anything by the suggestion.

That's because they are keen for the Council to continue to subsidise the bus services, I would suggest.

[#Metro]

That's because they are keen for the Council to continue to subsidise the bus services, I would suggest.

That's what I'm thinking too. But this may lead to overcrowding and not many more new services...

In other states PT is a state responsibility... Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, Melbourne. If the BCC goes broke (heaven forbid), it will be the QLD Government that will have to pick it up. If PT services can't be increases, it will be Anna Bligh that looks bad, given the precedents in other states and also the fact that the very successful BUZ was a BCC idea.

[Jonno]

Agree but I know where I would place my bet on this one

You're in favour of private ownership?  Knock me over with a feather.

 

[longboi]

I really do think contracting at least some of the BT service area to privates would be a good move. That way the burden of operating costs would be put on the private sector instead of taxpayers and all TL bus services will be on the same playing field, instead of the BT v TL nonsense that occurs currently.