The Electrical Trades Union (ETU) has blamed the inefficiency of Sydney Trains for the rail disruptions on May 22 which inconvenienced hundreds of Central Coast commuters.
While trains direct to the city from the Central Coast were not impacted, commuters needing to transfer to western lines and those travelling north to Newcastle were faced with lengthy queues for replacement buses.
The ETU says Sydney Trains’ refusal, or inability, to employ enough electrical workers to conduct essential maintenance on the network led to the hold-ups.
It says an analysis of Sydney Trains workforce data shows there are currently 762 frontline maintenance positions vacant – or 14% of its overall frontline workforce.
ETU NSW/ACT Secretary Allen Hicks said the huge vacancy figure was a key factor behind Sydney’s Trains’ poor proactive maintenance track record and directly contributed to ongoing delays for passengers on the network.
“You can’t operate a rail network the size of Sydney’s with fewer electrical workers than you need,” Hicks said.
“That figure is in electrical workers alone.
“There are in excess of 2,100 vacancies across Sydney Trains as a whole.
“Commuters are being forced to wait for delayed trains because the NSW Government simply can’t or won’t employ the number of workers it needs to manage the network properly.”
Hicks said the vacancies were a result of a combination of Sydney Trains’ refusal to prioritise proactive maintenance as well as an inability to attract and retain workers given the current working conditions.
“When you consider how the NSW Government has treated its Sydney Trains workers lately, it’s no surprise there are serious attraction and retention issues,” he said.
“An electrical worker at Sydney Trains could move up to Queensland and earn significantly more – in excess of 56% more in some cases – doing exactly the same job.
“This is why we’re still trying to negotiate a fair enterprise agreement.
“Sydney Trains management and the NSW Government don’t seem willing or able to see that their poor treatment of their workforce is having a detrimental impact on the whole network.
“The NSW Government spent many months attempting to blame any delay on the rail network on protected industrial action, without any regard for the truth.
“Even as recently as March, when there was no protected industrial action at all, we’ve seen massive network failures resulting in significant delays for commuters.
“The reality is that many of the day-to-day delays passengers are experiencing are a direct result of Sydney Trains’ refusal to prioritise proactive maintenance and to fill the huge numbers of frontline vacancies in the workforce.
“The current NSW Government seems intent on following in the footsteps of the previous government by allowing our rail network to slowly crumble.
“Sydney should have a world-class rail network, but that’ll never be the case until the NSW Government prioritises it.”
informative reading. thank you.
Well done ETU in sabotaging trains for your own agenda. You’re digging your own grave, the Metro shows the way forward in eliminating fat.
Not having enough electricians is hardly the only issue, though. The signalling system for the Sydney Trains network is ancient, to say the least – if we weren’t dragging our feet to implement ETCS signalling, it would’ve been resolved much more quickly (plus it’d allow trains to run at 160 km/h instead of 115 km/h)
Not to take away from the complaints by the ETU, though – electricians are hardly something you want to skimp on for a fully electrified train network