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GTR terminated ONTRAK?

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Ivor

Ivor

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Although rumours have been on the go the past month or so have been told ‘unofficially’ that GTR/Southern have terminated the ONTRAK agreement, allegedly at year end.

As agency workers we will be the last to know & after Christmas potentially out there with no work, any intel please?
 
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ComUtoR

ComUtoR

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On my patch, I'm surprised they have lasted this long. They were supposed to be going months ago.
 
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Surreytraveller

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Ivor said:
Trolley staff were agency or GTR employed?

In fairness we have had no official notice nor do I expect it on a zero hour contract as & when/if it happens but no smoke without fire.
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Agency (or at least contracted out)
 
ComUtoR

ComUtoR

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If there was any intent for them to be permanent then it would be safe to assume they would be employed directly. It is the nature of agency work to be temporary or used to cover work in the short term.

For GTR to cancel the entire contract with Ontrak is suspicious. Maybe they are moving to a different agency.
 
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JonathanH

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Isn't the point that a lot of the ONTRAK work is staffing stations at marginal times - e.g. at Reigate agency staff from ONTRAK are employed to staff the barriers from 7pm to midnight seven days a week while directly employed staff are used from 6am to 8pm on weekdays only.

There is a franchise requirement for first to last staffing at 101 stations so difficult to see how that is done without agency staff. I would imagine that even with an agency fee the cost of employing agency staff for this work is considerably less than directly employing staff.
 
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OxtedSignaller

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I know the RMT were not happy about how many agency staff were being used quite rightly and It's probably because GTR want to improve their customer service delivery and it was as has been mentioned related to the quick roll out of the first to last staffing programme which replaced the original London Zones First to Last and the DCO roll out which meant at several stations they needed additional dispatch staff. They also scrapped the ticket office closures and Station Host concept which means they now have an idea of what permanent staff they require in the business. The DfT may also be stipulating that come the end of the franchise they want vacancies to be filled and permanent staff in place ready for the handover to the new franchise holder/renewal of Govia. They have saved a lot of money since the beginning of the franchise by using agency staffing so GTR will not be too disappointed.

It can only be seen as a good thing as it will provide high quality jobs and decrease the high turnover temporary staff provides.
 
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Edders23

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If it is a different agency taking over the existing staff have to be reemployed by the new agency although I'm not sure how that works with zero hours contracts
 
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Surreytraveller

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Edders23 said:
If it is a different agency taking over the existing staff have to be reemployed by the new agency although I'm not sure how that works with zero hours contracts
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TUPE. Their employment continues. They'll get new Hi-Vis vests with their new employer's logo on.
 
Southern Dvr

Southern Dvr

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The Southern part of GTR have used agency staff since the early 2000s and I highly doubt they’ll have had a change of policy on them now. Simply they’ve decided to stop using OnTrack.

I’m told they’ve been training up a lot of their managers as contingency despatch staff though, not sure if industrial action is in the wings or if it’s just in case.
 
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Surreytraveller

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Southern Dvr said:
The Southern part of GTR have used agency staff since the early 2000s and I highly doubt they’ll have had a change of policy on them now. Simply they’ve decided to stop using OnTrack.

I’m told they’ve been training up a lot of their managers as contingency despatch staff though, not sure if industrial action is in the wings or if it’s just in case.
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They've been ensuring all contingency competencies are up to date, so something's afoot. Its not like GTR to be prepared just for the sake of being prepared
 
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