Sydney Trains reshuffles the Train Crew deck…….again!

Sydney Trains recently announced a new management structure for its Operations Directorate, which includes train crew management.

Historically, one General Manager position has been allocated to train crew. However under this new structure, two “Directors” will be allocated instead, covering two sectors of operation. A third “Director” will be created to manage training, rostering, standards and compliance, etc.

In recent years the General Manager’s position itself has been something of a revolving door and combined with the latest changes it’s no wonder crew feel there is no one consistent management approach. Instead, they feel they’ve experienced an ad hoc, sporadic and inconsistent management style.

To be fair, there have been some notable exceptions where certain General Managers have been able to apply some consistency and a level of trust with train crew. However when this was achieved it was unfortunately not maintained by successors.

This latest round of appointments could potentially see two of the “Directors” roles having no train crewing experience whatsoever with the third having only some limited, yet tainted, exposure.

Regardless of who gets which “Directors” appointment, we’re concerned that the real issue of daily “business as usual” transactions between management and employees will remain the real bone of contention for members, who are unlikely to experience much change apart from seeing new names on titles.

This constant “shuffling of the deck” leaves members on the ground without the ability to build or maintain any long term relationship with their immediate manager. The manager in turn is left in a constant state of uncertainty about his or her future and is therefore not willing to commit to the establishment of any long term working relationship with employees.

While there is nothing wrong with change if it is done for the right reasons and improvements are achieved, change for change’s sake creates a constant fluid situation that negatively impacts on all caught up in the process.

At least there is one consistent element – throughout all the management reshuffles over recent years, and through the good and the bad, there has and always will be the Loco Division in the fray, working with and supporting the membership as it has for 150 years!