Irish Rail personnel management (Split from Dublin Bus strike thread)

LXFlyer

No company should allow that situation to build up - EVER. The HR department should be insisting on people's leave being taken - or it being paid. To allow that sort of situation to arise is scandalous.

Michael D Not Higgins

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

It would cost them a fortune to pay for all that leave, never mind that in 10 years they'll have it all racked up again.

mickydoomsux

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

The company has turned down that idea twice in recent years.

Much easier leave things as they are and now they are taking a percentage of days at the end of the year as part of the cost saving program.

Michael D Not Higgins

mickydoomsux wrote: »

You'd end up facing disciplinary action for not showing up for work because you'll more than likely be the only person rostered on.

The cover just isn't there.

Can you tell us what your job is (or do you want to keep it under wraps for confidentiality?)

Why can they not roster someone else while you're on holiday?

mickydoomsux

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Can you tell us what your job is (or do you want to keep it under wraps for confidentiality?)

Why can they not roster someone else while you're on holiday?

I'm a station operative who also does booking office duties etc.

I'm already technically "the relief man" at our location who covers other peoples holidays/illness/whatever (despite being there for the past 5 years). I've been covering a fella who is on an 18 month secondment to another job at the moment, he won't be coming back but they won't give me his roster just yet because the still need to change mine from week to week to plug gaps made by other people taking time off. I get my roster on a Friday for the following week so i never know my rest days before then and they are often split at different ends of the week which makes planning to do anything rather cumbersome.

Makes it very hard for me to get time off because i'm the only one covering the time off of 4 other members of staff. I can cover all of their jobs but two of them can't cover mine because they are clerical and so can't be left on their own in the station because they aren't trained to dispatch trains, wind points, do pilotworking etc.

Gatling

mickydoomsux wrote: »

I'm a station operative who also does booking office duties etc.

I'm already technically "the relief man" at our location who covers other peoples holidays/illness/whatever (despite being there for the past 5 years). I've been covering a fella who is on an 18 month secondment to another job at the moment, he won't be coming back but they won't give me his roster just yet because the still need to change mine from week to week to plug gaps made by other people taking time off. I get my roster on a Friday for the following week so i never know my rest days before then and they are often split at different ends of the week which makes planning to do anything rather cumbersome.

Makes it very hard for me to get time off because i'm the only one covering the time off of 4 other members of staff. I can cover all of their jobs but two of them can't cover mine because they are clerical and so can't be left on their own in the station because they aren't trained to dispatch trains, wind points, do pilotworking etc.

That's absolutely rediculous

Michael D Not Higgins

Okay well you're justified in the number of holidays you have racked up. What about the others on the same or more holidays or are they in other stations doing the same cover job you're doing?

mickydoomsux

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Okay well you're justified in the number of holidays you have racked up. What about the others on the same or more holidays or are they in other stations doing the same cover job you're doing?

Pretty much. Some of them are in smaller stations with only two members of staff so if one takes time off the other has to work long days to cover it if i'm not available because i'm already covering someone else.

It's an utter disaster on the ground and has been for years. It is only really coming to the forefront in the last couple of years because they let people out on VS and didn't replace them which just exacerbates things further.

Michael D Not Higgins

Great to hear the staff's perspective. What does your manager have to say about annual leave?

mickydoomsux

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Great to hear the staff's perspective. What does your manager have to say about annual leave?

He was instructed by the district manager (an individual who couldn't run a stall at a carboot) to draw up a plan to "use up everyones leave" a couple of months ago.

It's already the middle of the season for people taking the usual leave for holidays etc. so they are only using up the same amount of their allocation that they would any other year. Perhaps when September rolls around and it all calms down then he can implement his plan. I'm off for a few days this week (i put in for the whole week) and i've put in for next week as well but i won't know if i've got it till Friday. Also, i have to go back in this Sunday morning because they have no one available to open the station.

kingshankly

Have you not got 2 weeks rostered leave in the summer

mickydoomsux

kingshankly wrote: »

Have you not got 2 weeks rostered leave in the summer

No one has rostered leave at any stage. You have to apply for all your leave and they can either accommodate you or they can't and your have to try another time.

kingshankly

Well there must have been some days lost last year when 25% was taken back.

Losty Dublin

mickydoomsux wrote: »

No one has rostered leave at any stage. You have to apply for all your leave and they can either accommodate you or they can't and your have to try another time.

One year back in the 70's my Dad got his roster and duly noted that he was rostered to take his summer holidays in April. Not asked for or given leave but actually told a week before when he was to take his holidays; requesting time off rarely ever got you the time off you either. Almost 40 years on and it's sad to see that it's still going on.

mickydoomsux

I lost a few myself and i stand to lose more by the end of this year if i don't get a chance to use them up.

Suits the company nicely though.

mickydoomsux

Losty Dublin wrote: »

One year back in the 70's my Dad got his roster and duly noted that he was rostered to take his summer holidays in April. Not asked for or given leave but actually told a week before when he was to take his holidays; requesting time off rarely ever got you the time off you either. Almost 40 years on and it's sad to see that it's still going on.

And yet clerical can take as much time off and it does not matter in the slightest.

Our head clerk took a week and a half off sick recently with zero notice and i think i was put on to cover a single shift of hers in that time period. Her work was all just done by the station manager along with his own duties. She could leave tomorrow and it wouldn't really matter. And yet she's the best paid member of staff at my location. Madness.

kingshankly

mickydoomsux wrote: »

And yet clerical can take as much time off and it does not matter in the slightest.

Our head clerk took a week and a half off sick recently with zero notice and i think i was put on to cover a single shift of hers in that time period. Her work was all just done by the station manager along with his own duties. She could leave tomorrow and it wouldn't really matter. And yet she's the best paid member of staff at my location. Madness.

To be fair a lot if clerks had their hours cut and in most cases now if someone is on holidays they just close the booking office instead of giving overtime

mickydoomsux

kingshankly wrote: »

To be fair a lot if clerks had their hours cut and in most cases now if someone is on holidays they just close the booking office instead of giving overtime

Hours cut? First i heard of it. They are only on a 36 hour contract anyway, they had their built-in overtime cut in a lot of locations and rightly so.

Booking offices don't close in a lot of locations now because the company have started sticking traffic staff in them to fill in the gaps in the cushy clerical rosters that don't cover weekends, earlies or lates.

kingshankly

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Hours cut? First i heard of it. They are only on a 36 hour contract anyway, they had their built-in overtime cut in a lot of locations and rightly so.

Booking offices don't close in a lot of locations now because the company have started sticking traffic staff in them to fill in the gaps in the cushy clerical rosters that don't cover weekends, earlies or lates.

Not where I am the dont nobody apart from a clerk is allowed in to the booking office and if there is nobody to cover it closes and if there is a ticket checker on he will write tickets from his box but if he's not on barriers left open.
Holiday are giving to anyone who requires them and the jobs left uncovered.
We as drivers have rostered holidays and can swap weeks to suit.
But it's tough getting any extra a/ during summer months

mickydoomsux

kingshankly wrote: »

Not where I am the dont nobody apart from a clerk is allowed in to the booking office and if there is nobody to cover it closes and if there is a ticket checker on he will write tickets from his box but if he's not on barriers left open.
Holiday are giving to anyone who requires them and the jobs left uncovered.
We as drivers have rostered holidays and can swap weeks to suit.
But it's tough getting any extra a/ during summer months

Suppose it's different in every district

mickydoomsux

Got the call today. I have to work three days next week after looking for the entire week off because there just isn't any cover.

Marvelous.

davidlacey

where are most of these clerical workers coming from? freight division?

Forest Demon

They should offer to buy back the time off at about 50% of its value. It would be optional and would not suit everyone but it would be a nice few quid for those who have loads saved up. Then put in place procedures to ensure that it does not happen again. If the company do not deal with it then people are entitled to it eventually either way if they leave or are sacked. Paying people and having the staffing levels so low is crazy. The staff and the customer suffers for management incompetence.

Losty Dublin

Forest Demon wrote: »

They should offer to buy back the time off at about 50% of its value. It would be optional and would not suit everyone but it would be a nice few quid for those who have loads saved up. Then put in place procedures to ensure that it does not happen again. If the company do not deal with it then people are entitled to it eventually either way if they leave or are sacked. Paying people and having the staffing levels so low is crazy. The staff and the customer suffers for management incompetence.

It's the cost that prevents this from being done. Say the average wage is €120 per day and 1,000 men are owed 10 days. That's €1.2 million of wages owed and that's being conservative with the figures and it's disregarding employee contributions for PRSI, pension and the like.

Or they can plain not give them their leave as is the case today and it costs the company nothing at all.

Infini

Losty Dublin wrote: »

Or they can plain not give them their leave as is the case today and it costs the company nothing at all.

Not Necessarily if noone is getting the time off when they need it eventually it can come down to the "backup" option of simply going out sick when you want some time off instead of applying for it. The whole situation is a bit of a joke atm expecially since frontline positions are so badly undermanned theres noone there half the time.

mickydoomsux

davidlacey wrote: »

where are most of these clerical workers coming from? freight division?

Our depot had 20+ employees 10 years ago so they needed a clerical presence. We have around a quarter of that number now but still have the same number of clerical. These people are expert at holding on to their overpaid nonjobs.

All of their work could be done at the district office and none of the actual useful ground staff would even notice.

Heisenberg1

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Our depot had 20+ employees 10 years ago so they needed a clerical presence. We have around a quarter of that number now but still have the same number of clerical. These people are expert at holding on to their overpaid nonjobs.

All of their work could be done at the district office and none of the actual useful ground staff would even notice.

From 20 staff down too 5 what exactly do Station Ops do now?. Must be very little with the dramatic reduction in staff.

mickydoomsux

Heisenberg1 wrote: »

From 20 staff down too 5 what exactly do Station Ops do now?. Must be very little with the dramatic reduction in staff.

Freight and Fast track are gone so they rolled us into the booking office and opening the place along with our existing duties of cleaning, dealing with passangers, train dispatch and emergency duties. Clerical got no extra duties and in fact got their duties reduced because of the lack of freight/fast track and we also took over their booking office duties.

And yet they are by far the best paid, to tot up wages (we do our own time sheets) and put in orders for bleach and mop heads every couple of months.

Heisenberg1

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Freight and Fast track are gone so they rolled us into the booking office and opening the place along with our existing duties of cleaning, dealing with passangers, train dispatch and emergency duties. Clerical got no extra duties and in fact got their duties reduced because of the lack of freight/fast track and we also took over their booking office duties.

And yet they are by far the best paid, to tot up wages (we do our own time sheets) and put in orders for bleach and mop heads every couple of months.

Does the station controller not look after train dispatch? Do ISS not clean the major stations?

Dealing with the customers part of all your jobs. Major station

booking offices are they not looked after by clerks? Would you agree that

your day to day duty's are less than years ago?

mickydoomsux

Heisenberg1 wrote: »

Does the station controller not look after train dispatch? Do ISS not clean the major stations?

Dealing with the customers part of all your jobs. Major station

booking offices are they not looked after by clerks? Would you agree that

your day to day duty's are less than years ago?

We don't and never have had either a station controller or outside cleaners. The operatives took over the booking office duties at our station about 5 years ago so in fact we have more duties.