Engineering news
Network Rail is to slash around 500 maintenance jobs, claiming that productivity improvements on the rail network over the past two years have reduced its need for track workers.
The 500 employees will leave the company through voluntary redundancy by the end of May, with a further 200 workers also likely to be made redundant over the coming months. The cutbacks are in addition to the 235 staff who took redundancy in January 2010.
The move has infuriated rail unions who have accused Network Rail of adopting “bully boy” tactics and have labelled the cutbacks as “dangerous”.
Network Rail said it was increasing the productivity of its maintenance activities through improved technology and a newer asset base - track, signalling systems and power supplies. This combination of new infrastructure which needs less maintenance, together with what it said was the elimination of over-manning and outdated working practices, was allowing it to reduce its employee numbers.
Steve Featherstone, Network Rail’s director of maintenance, said: “New infrastructure, new technology and new ways of working mean we can maintain the railway more safely and efficiently than ever before with fewer people. More efficient maintenance means more investment in improving stations, opening new lines and adding capacity to allow more and longer trains.”
But Gerry Doherty, leader of the TSSA transport union, said that the maintenance cutbacks were politically motivated. “These wholesale maintenance cutbacks by Network Rail have so far put 1,200 Jarvis workers on the dole queue and threaten a further 1,000 in-house NR staff.
“The company seems to be more interested in impressing David Cameron with its bully boy tactics than sitting down with the unions to agree a sensible programme of change.”
The RMT union was equally critical, claiming the cutbacks had nothing to do with overstaffing, new technology or outdated working practices, but represented a dangerous money-saving gamble.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Network Rail is trying to con the public into believing that a cost-led jobs cull is safe when we already know that inspections and maintenance frequencies are overstretched.
“The company’s plans are simply dangerous and RMT will continue to resist them, including re-balloting for strike action.”