OneRail Rosters

Over several Months now 1Rail delegates and the RTBU Locomotive division have been  attempting to resolve a dispute over a New Roster. Firstly, 1Rail proposed a roster with uneven  fortnights with some having 8 shifts and some having 9 shifts. These were not balanced, with  several fortnights of nine shifts and then some 8, simply it was all over the place. When delegates  challenged the roster, the company provided a 9-shift a fortnight roster.  

The problem with what has been proposed is again, the roster is highly unbalanced. Crews sign  on each hour, however some hours only having one crew sign on to others where there are three.  Put simply where three crews sign on at 8 am you may only have one crew signing on at a later  hour, yet three crews need to be relieved from duty. Another problem is that the roster has been  fatigue scored for shift lengths of 8.5 hours when it is known that shifts such as those to Ulan are  well in excess of this. With faults like this, the roster if introduced will fail and end up with more  shift breaches, more fatigue issues and more problems for an overstretched and inexperienced  live run team. 

The RTBU Locomotive Division Organisers and Delegates met with Local Management on  Wednesday and what became evident was that the local management team are not listening and  are intent on introducing the proposed roster regardless. It was also evident that WHS matters  such as extra car driving and fatigue issues have not been considered in 1Rail’s processes. It  was made clear that if 1Rail progress with their roster proposal, the Locomotive Division will take  the matter to the Fair Work Commission and Safe Work NSW. 

In addition to the roster matter the number of recent shift breaches was raised at the meeting with  the company giving a number of excuses regarding why the breaches are occurring. It was made  clear that it is not acceptable to allow these to occur as breakdowns and rostering are everyday  occurrences that should have mitigation processes in place.  

Since our meeting 1Rail have arranged a further meeting with Senior management next  Wednesday in an attempt to resolve both matters. Members will be advised of the outcome.

Download a copy of the Newsflash here.