Bonus just for going to work

Rail staff’s Games windfall

TRAIN drivers will get a $1250 one-off bonus simply for turning up to work during this April’s Commonwealth Games and more than double their pay for working on days off.

The lump-sum payment will only be paid if all rostered train crew, including guards, show up on the days they are rostered in the Games period.

Drivers will also get a 225 per cent penalty rate for shifts worked on their rostered days off. And some other Queensland Rail frontline workers, from platform staff to network response teams, will be able to claim an extra $8 an hour if they work all their shifts during the event.

The generous Games “incentive payments” have been negotiated with the rail unions in a bid to avoid a repeat of the 2016 network meltdown.

Train crew, which includes drivers and guards and other frontline staff, have agreed to cap the amount of annual leave taken across the Games and Easter holidays in return. A severe shortage of drivers caused the 2016 meltdown, with an independent inquiry in January 2017 linking a built-in shortage of train crew to the creation of overtime opportunities.

It recommended hiring a surplus of drivers, but progress has been slow with just 19 extra qualified drivers on QR’s books as of last January compared to at the time of the 2016 timetable collapse. That has put drivers under pressure during the Games, when Gold Coast services will triple.

QR chief executive officer Nick Easy said incentives were common for international events of this scale, with an extra six million trips expected across the transport network.

“Critical frontline staff including train crew, train controllers, overhead linesman, signal engineers, and station operations staff, will be going above and beyond to deliver a boost to rail services on the Gold Coast line, and we have worked closely with our employees to ensure their extra efforts and flexibility are recognised,” he said.

But Rail Back on Track spokesman Robert Dow likened the payment to a bribe.

“You’d think people would want to go to work and do the right thing anyway,” he said.

“We don’t agree with that in principle. The train crew are pretty well compensated. They get generous overtime, conditions aren’t bad, and on top of that an incentive payment?

“Are the doctors and nurses at the Gold Coast hospital going to be paid an incentive to come in and look after sick people?”

Train drivers earn $98,000 a year and last year won a 12 per cent pay rise over four years.