Traincrew Shortages

[whole diary]

[adc82140]

I work in the healthcare industry (albeit private)- we work a standard 37.5 hour week, over the Monday-Friday period, but over 3 days (12.5 hr shifts). This is the way it always has been. However my contract states that I may be required for work on any day, Monday to Sunday. They can't make me work overtime, but I can be told to work hours up to 37.5 per week any day of the week with a 30 day notice period. As far as I can see it's watertight for my employer, and I was fully aware of this when I took the job. Those who started before this contact was active a few years ago are not required to work weekends (obviously they could choose to). There is no bitterness or ill feeling between staff on each contract- it's just accepted. I sometimes think that certain areas of the rail industry, both management and staff, need a reality check.  

[time flies by when]

A lot of people seem to be missing the point here.  Bringing Sunday's into the working week isn't that straightforward. You would need to recruit a considerable amount of new staff to enable this to happen otherwise you'd find yourself short at other times during the week.
There was a figure floating around as to how much this would cost the company, I can't recall what it was but I will try to find out, but it was a huge amount.  The company can not afford to do it. 
1.  The cost of additional drivers, train managers & catering staff as mentioned plus,
2.  A payrise for all existing staff to include Sunday's in the working week (for example, Sunday's are worth say ^2000 a year.  ^2000 would need adding to the basic salary)
3.  Sunday is currently overtime and it is therefore not pensionable. Bringing it into the working week would, I think, have bigger financial implications for the company. (I'm not 100% upto speed on pensions, tax etc but I've heard this mentioned!)

[Chris from Nailsea]

Thanks for posting ... your first post, 'time flies by when'. 

From that, it seems rather likely that you are a member of railway staff: please do stay with us, even if the reaction to your post may become a bit lively!   

[John R]

A lot of people seem to be missing the point here.  Bringing Sunday's into the working week isn't that straightforward. You would need to recruit a considerable amount of new staff to enable this to happen otherwise you'd find yourself short at other times during the week.
There was a figure floating around as to how much this would cost the company, I can't recall what it was but I will try to find out, but it was a huge amount.  The company can not afford to do it. 
1.  The cost of additional drivers, train managers & catering staff as mentioned plus,
2.  A payrise for all existing staff to include Sunday's in the working week (for example, Sunday's are worth say ^2000 a year.  ^2000 would need adding to the basic salary)
3.  Sunday is currently overtime and it is therefore not pensionable. Bringing it into the working week would, I think, have bigger financial implications for the company. (I'm not 100% upto speed on pensions, tax etc but I've heard this mentioned!)

Welcome to the forum, and thanks for a very thought provoking first post.

The first point puzzles me, so would appreciate more explanation.  People don't work on Sunday for free, they either get time off in lieu or paid overtime. If the latter then it would seem to make more sense to make Sunday a normal working day, even if there is some offset as indicated in your second point in having to make some overall increase to remuneration. If the former, then you have to employ enough staff to avoid shortages in the week anyway.

[grahame]

Indeed - a very interesting introduction.

Let's see if I understand this.

At present, Henry (fictitious - I don't known driver or train manager Henry) works 40 hours regular times plus 6.66 hours of overtime per week. For that he earns ^1000 (also fictitious, for easy calculation).  At ^20 per hour, that's ^800 for the 40 hours and 1.5 x rate for the overtime.

If you were to remove the need for overtime so that staff worked just the normal working week of 40 hours, on my figures you would need 17 extra members of staff per 100 you have before the removal to carry the hours, and if you did this without amending your rates of pay, your existing staff would see a significant drop in their incomes; the post I'm following up suggests that the amount involved is around ^2000 per staff member per year.

I know my figures are likely to be significantly in error - I'm trying to make sure I understand the principle being raised.   I've not attempted to look at / understand the higher maths of tax, NI, pensions, paid holiday, employment overheads, and staff working shorter hours so loosing route knowledge more often ...

Now - having written all of that, the question should be asked as to how all the elements of the rail industry (I hesitate to use the word sides) got us into a situation in which certain weekend services seem to be being cancelled with a frequency far in excess of what's good for business.  It sounds a bit like the fare system - not clever in some ways, and yet very hard to get from where we are to a system which is clever without some severe waves.   

By the way, don't I recall that Sunday services aren't included in performance measures, or did I get that wrong? If I'm right, would that not be an incentive to let all short-staffing issues fall to Sundays where you're not going to be penalised?

P.S.   Welcome to the forum 

[phile]

It seems that Par Depot is the location largely involved.

[IndustryInsider]

That can be one of the problems with smaller depots as, for example, the effect of one more person going sick can't as easily be absorbed by the rest of the establishment as it could be at a larger depot.  I'm not sure how many guards are based at Par, but the driver depot only has an establishment of 32, which means on a typical summer Saturday there might be a pool of around 20 available to cover all the shifts for that day.  If two were to go sick, or be unavailable to drive for other reasons then you're very quickly in trouble.  Same applies for the guards.

[ChrisB]

If you're rolling Sundays into the working week, that's another day of say, 14 hours (estimate) that needs covering by two shifts. So you need additional staff to cover those shifts/hours if you're not going to rely on overtime.

So that's additional pensionable (& other salary benefits) pay instead of, say x2 earnings for those working (with no other benefits costs on top)....so, yes, a lot higher costs.

[dog box]

Sunday working is paid at time and a quarter, whilst all other overtime is time , which some people feel  isn't worthwhile

[ChrisB]

Wow....I'm not sure I'd do Sunday overtime at 1.25 either. Might have some support here. Ought to be at least x1.5

[TaplowGreen]

.....just a thought, surely there is something in the franchise agreement about FGW^▸ (First Great Western) ensuring that there are sufficient staff available to run the advertised service?

[ChrisB]

Just as other TOCS have been penalised when unable to run Sunday services (London Midland jumps to mind here), the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) have penalised them.

So continued problems (outside strike action) will probably be watched very closely

[TaplowGreen]

Just as other TOCS have been penalised when unable to run Sunday services (London Midland jumps to mind here), the ORR^» (Office of Rail and Road formerly Office of Rail Regulation - about) have penalised them.

So continued problems (outside strike action) will probably be watched very closely

Thanks that's interesting......but I guess they aren't being penalised enough to up the overtime pay, recruit more drivers/guards and/or change contracts to oblige people to work on Sundays?

[ChrisB]

LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) I think did a recruitment drive & upped their wages I believe

[TaplowGreen]

LM^▸ (London Midland - recent franchise) I think did a recruitment drive & upped their wages I believe

..........perhaps that's what FGW^▸ (First Great Western) will need to do?