Sunday of my Life

Well, kinda. After reading this entry of my fellow blogger Agent FaveEvader several times, I must say that I was apalled. Shocked. Flabbergasted. And other words that indicate a state of mind bordering on paralysis! I mean, sure, I knew abou this a few weeks back, but I wasn’t really aware of how deeply the Agent felt about it. It saddens me, it really does, to see this happening. Connex and Yarra Trams should really be ashamed of themselves. They take on a new public transport network, something that dwarfs their previous total network sare of 30%, and what do they do on the day they take over? They put a large portion of their dedicated, experienced and fabulous staf out of work. Unceremoniously Give The Arse.

To quote Derrin Hinch: “Shame, Shame, Shame.”

Show me where the logic lies in this move.
You are the CEO of Yarra Trams/Connex. You tell the public that you are going to hire (X) amount of new staff when you take over the whole of Melbourne’s public transport network. Instead, when that event does indeed occur, you fire ~180 of the staff from the companies you’ve just taken over, deeming them ‘Surplus to Requirements”. Over the next few weeks, cancel an average of 6 trains a day, on the Pakenham line alone, due to a lack of drivers for them. God only knows what’s happening to the public presence on the trams thanks to this move.

Show me where it is, and I’ll show you where it isn’t.
It Isn’t In:

• Sacking staff instead of hiring them.
• Sacking experienced staff in order to hire less experienced staff.
• Sacking loyal staff in order to hire the untested.
• Sacking staff who’s only upkeep you will have to pay is their wages to hire new people who’s wages AND training costs you will have to pay (amounting to hundreds of thousands, possibly even millions of dollars lost while 180 new people are in training, earning money from you while not doing work that gains you money).
• Sacking staff after promising the public a more “physical” presence on the trams (what did you mean to do? have you Tram Attendants conduct aerobics classes on the trams? Hand out Milk, perhaps?)
• Sacking staff…so many staff that you regularly have to cancel scheduled, and in many cases relied upon, train services becuase you don’t have enough drivers to cover the shifts.

Boy…just typing that out has made me angry all over again. There is only one word for this move by Connex/Yarra Trams. Bullshit. BULLSHIT. BUUUUUUULLLLLSHIIIIIIIT. (I’ll say it slowly for the hard of thinking) Yes, I know i sound like I’m reciting from “How to Lost a Guy In 10 Days”, but tha’ts how i feel about it. Their logic is flawed, and their move is complete and utter crap.

So what if Yarra Trams has hired 60 new staff? That 60 can’t possibly cover the work of 180. They are costing the company money while they’re being trained, and the extra stress placed on them by attempting to work the jobs of more than 1 person each (resulting on more paid sickies and increased drop-outs [hence more wages to pay, and more time lost in training]), PLUS the decreased public satisfaction caused by the inexperienced staff bumbling their way through the job (until such time as they gain the necessary experience, by which time the damage is done) will all cost the company money. And where will this cash loss end up? On the fares of your tickets. From the pocket of the paying public will the lost revenue be made up, and this simply adds to the tragedy.

Well, one day soon I’d like to start the “Hire Them Back” Campaign going…get the word out to the public (I mean the real public. not simply the megre, but loyal, audience that I get), make them make the public transport compaies take responsiblities for their actions, and bring back the faces we know and love on our trams and trains. The friendly, experienced tram attendants we’d see day in, day out, who would help us with our queries, check the tickets so politely and assist in any way they could. The drivers who would get us to our stop on time (or thereabouts) and turn up so promptly every 5 minutes, enabling us to move onwards and upwards. The depot staff who would make sure our trams and trains were clean and tidy, that we could ride in comfort. The Maintenance staff who, if fact, made sure that we could ride at all. The station staff who would sell us our tickets and, when the day was hot and throats were dry, the cheap cans of soft-drink, or the free cup of water.

We need to tell them that we want back the staff that we know are going to provide us with the better service, and make our commuting lives better. We need to tell them…tell them…tell them to “Hire Them Back“!

But, for now, we need to wait.

For there is an unfair dismissal case in the offing, and we don’t want to do anything to foul that up.

However, if that is unsuccessful (and Dear Lord I hope it isn’t) then…

Viva la Revolución!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 20th, 2004 at 11:35 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.