Article: RailCorp axes more jobs and to spilt in two in major rail restructure

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From the Sydney Morning Herald click here!

RailCorp axes more jobs and to spilt in two in major rail restructure

RailCorp axes more jobs and to spilt in two in major rail restructure
November 16, 2012 - 12:44PM  Anna Patty and Jacob Saulwick

Another 690 jobs will be cut from RailCorp in the latest changes to Sydney's train system.

But the cuts will not affect the number of drivers, guards or station staff, Transport Minister, Gladys Berejiklian, said at a press conference on Friday morning.

Fairfax Media also obtained a high-level RailCorp document which sheds more light on the large-scale plan to abolish the position of station managers and other rail staff, raising questions about the future safety of services.

The internal RailCorp document which is labelled commercial in confidence targets station managers, saying their role will no longer exist as part of a major staff restructure.

A spokesman for Ms Berajiklian said  many roles would be redefined and people would be transferred to new jobs.

Safety and risk related positions are also among those "roles" which the draft document says will no longer exist.

Under the heading of "transition pathways to the new organisation", the list of staff positions to be reduced include risk analysts, customer support officers and train crew support staff.

The document also suggests the role of drug and alcohol testing investigators and auditors will not exist under the restructure.

Other positions targeted under the plan, which is a live working document, for the government includes regional crew managers, depot managers and network superintendents.

From July next year, RailCorp will be dissolved and replaced by two new organisations, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains.

At Friday's press conference Ms Berejiklian said 240 positions will be cut as a result of the new organisations - about half from middle management and half from other parts of the organisation.

The cuts come on top of 750 middle management redundancies already announced.

Another 450 maintenance positions, of 4700, will be cut in the next three years.

Ms Berejiklian said the number of station staff on the network today would be retained.

But she said more station staff would be on platforms and not behind desks preparing paperwork.

Asked if smaller stations would lose staff, Ms Berejiklian said: "Every station that has staff will have the same staff from 1 July."

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/railcorp-axes-more-jobs-and-to-spilt-in-two-in-major-rail-restructure-20121116-29g4a.html

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