AURIZON NSW BULK RESTRUCTURE 

BULK EMPLOYEES FACE REDUNDANCY IN SHAMEFUL MOVE 

As Aurizon Employees across the NSW Bulk and NSW Coal Business’s would have seen in yesterday’s correspondence from the company, Aurizon Bulk have announced a restructure of its NSW Operations. 

The restructure sees Bulk employees being shuffled to other sections / departments, with mineral trains (the EZ) now coming under Bulk QLD and Container Trains coming under Bulk Central (based out of South Australia). 

In what can only be described as Shameful, the NSW Grain side of the business is being absorbed into the NSW Coal Business however, the six affected employees are to either apply for roles outside their local area or be forcibly retrenched. Three Gunnedah employees could easily be redeployed into the Quirindi coal depot as could the three Newcastle Employees into the Hexham coal depot. Both Depots currently have a number of Labour Hire workers engaged at those depots and also have vacant lines on the depot rosters. 

It is apparent Aurizon would rather use Labour Hire than redeploy their dedicated employees. These employees came into the NSW Bulk business with a sense of excitement and anticipation towards helping establish a new business. They have worked their utmost going above and beyond to build and develop it, and now their reward is to face retrenchment. SHAME! 

For Coal employees the restructuring means that the company will no doubt be required to operate grain services as was previously the case, that is of course unless its intention is to utilise labour hire and pay substandard rates of pay. 

For those employees in Bulk wondering what will happen with current EA negotiations, Aurizon have said it intends to progress with current negotiations. The RTBU however has concerns and we will need to see and understand the full details of the companies intended reporting structures and operating models before committing as it is very obvious that the intended operations covered by the agreement are now somewhat different to when the negotiation started. 

Members can be assured the RTBU will do everything it can to encourage Aurizon to do the right thing by its employees and redeploy those displaced. We will hold Aurizon to account and ensure proper consultation is undertaken across all affected areas. 

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