A career as a signaller

[bouff34]

Sick pay full for six months, half for six then nothing.

Pension non railway new starter NWR plan for five years, before you can transfer to Railway Pension final salary scheme. If your railway and RPS already you can go straight into NWR section of RPS.

Just to add - as a new joiner you won't be entitled to any sick pay until you have six months service....

 

[Tom Quinne]

Do network rail match any avc's ?

Not anymore no, I think some people do still get it however but their few and far between.

 

[Tom Quinne]

Just to add - as a new joiner you won't be entitled to any sick pay until you have six months service....

Even with the current circumstances?

 

[bouff34]

Even with the current circumstances?

Pass. I'm just going on what my contract says (having joined March 2019). I guess you would get Statutory Sick pay though... i.e. the government payment of £94.25 per week...

 

[Allaboard78]

Sick pay full for six months, half for six then nothing.

Pension non railway new starter NWR plan for five years, before you can transfer to Railway Pension final salary scheme. If your railway and RPS already you can go straight into NWR section of RPS.

Thank you

 

[Allaboard78]

With the pension, does anyone know how much network rail contribute? It is really hard to find the information on line?

 

[bouff34]

With the pension, does anyone know how much network rail contribute? It is really hard to find the information on line?

http://www.mynrpension.co.uk/media/5689/nr-pensions-key-features-april-2016.pdf

 

[Allaboard78]

Thank you

 

[Gallius]

Has anyone had any word from NWR regarding Signalling School and whether courses have been cancelled/postponed? I'm waiting on a start date but with recent developments I'm fairly certain I won't be starting in May/June as was originally suggested by my LOM.

 

[9tfrizzco]

Has anyone had any word from NWR regarding Signalling School and whether courses have been cancelled/postponed? I'm waiting on a start date but with recent developments I'm fairly certain I won't be starting in May/June as was originally suggested by my LOM.

I have been given a start date of 27th April. From what I've gathered from reading here we could still start work even if signaller school is delayed, and in fact, people often don't start signaller school for a couple of months after employment commences anyway. Two guys posting here recently are officially employed but not at signaller school.
This would all be well and good and promising but it really does depend on the extent of the lockdowns(if any) around that time and of course, company decision. Ultimately any delay in starting work I am fine with, my worst fear is contract termination but I think that's unlikely as signal boxes will always need filling

 

[Gallius]

I have been given a start date of 27th April. From what I've gathered from reading here we could still start work even if signaller school is delayed, and in fact, people often don't start signaller school for a couple of months after employment commences anyway. Two guys posting here recently are officially employed but not at signaller school.
This would all be well and good and promising but it really does depend on the extent of the lockdowns(if any) around that time and of course, company decision. Ultimately any delay in starting work I am fine with, my worst fear is contract termination but I think that's unlikely as signal boxes will always need filling

The plan was to start us a week before signalling school - I believe there's 7 of us due to be starting at the same time. I'm not sure what they would do with 7 of us at one location if we were started and not in signalling school for weeks. I agree with what you have said, a delay would be far better than termination!

 

[Javagem]

The plan was to start us a week before signalling school - I believe there's 7 of us due to be starting at the same time. I'm not sure what they would do with 7 of us at one location if we were started and not in signalling school for weeks. I agree with what you have said, a delay would be far better than termination!

I emailed last Weds to check if they’d had my medical results back and they said the start date was 27/4. The situation is changing daily so I’d expect some sort of communication from recruitment soon.

 

[LOM]

Has anyone had any word from NWR regarding Signalling School and whether courses have been cancelled/postponed?

Nothing has been decided yet. I suspect things will become more clear by the end of the week.

 

[Newbie70]

I'm due to start on the 27th April, I called and spoke to the recruitment people today, the opinion was that it is still going ahead, but we would be contacted should that change in the next few weeks.

 

[Javagem]

I'm due to start on the 27th April, I called and spoke to the recruitment people today, the opinion was that it is still going ahead, but we would be contacted should that change in the next few weeks.

Yes I’ve just emailed this morning to check the status of my medical, which, it turns out had been processed and is all fine but I’d not been updated. All sorted now and they asked me to confirm I’m still ok for 27/4, so hopefully it’ll still go ahead, but things are changing so quickly at the moment aren't they!

 

[MostlyHarmless]

I have an interview first thing tomorrow morning so I'm hoping that won't be cancelled and also that the pub I'm staying in tonight won't be closed!

 

[Cavan]

Im suprised interviews are still going ahead to be honest. I guess if arranged for some time.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

Im suprised interviews are still going ahead to be honest. I guess if arranged for some time.

I only got the invite a week ago. My thinking is that there will only be three of us so I suppose the risk is fairly minimal assuming we all take sensible precautions.

 

[LOM]

So far we have only been asked to ‘consider’ whether interviews should be suspended. By next week I think we will see a much tighter grip on things. There is new and updated internal guidance coming out more or less every hour now.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

So far we have only been asked to ‘consider’ whether interviews should be suspended. By next week I think we will see a much tighter grip on things. There is new and updated internal guidance coming out more or less every hour now.

Seems a sensible approach. I'll be happy to get it out of the way as I have a feeling that if it gets postponed, it won't get rescheduled for quite a while.

 

[nom de guerre]

Seemingly-endless intranet articles and company handouts: use alcohol-based sanitizer

Sanitizer provided by company: alcohol-free

Is this just my route ...?

 

[Sanatogen]

Nope and when we challenged it we were told it was fine, also been asked to try and maintain distance and then have trainees foisted on us.

All the contradictory advice has got a lot of us angry and frustrated.

 

[LOM]

Seemingly-endless intranet articles and company handouts: use alcohol-based sanitizer

Sanitizer provided by company: alcohol-free

Is this just my route ...?

The little spray bottles were dished out nationally. NR has obtained a certificate from the manufacturer showing results in laboratory tests indicating it is effective against 99.9% of viruses. It was supposed to have been cascaded to every signalbox nationally at the end of last week. I expect NR was limited in terms of what it could obtain in large quantities from suppliers bearing in mind the general shortage of hand sanitiser products at the moment.

 

[nom de guerre]

NR has obtained a certificate from the manufacturer showing results in laboratory tests indicating it is effective against 99.9% of viruses.

Unfortunately we're dealing with the exceptional 0.01%.

As ever, it's the lack of communication that grates.

 

[LOM]

As ever, it's the lack of communication that grates.

In fairness they have made an effort to communicate about it though perhaps it has not been cascaded to you locally. In fact we have been bombarded with communications about the virus situation. Too much at times, information overload.

 

[nom de guerre]

In fairness they have made an effort to communicate about it though perhaps it has not been cascaded to you locally.

By "communication", I mean an acknowledgement from the company that a) the current product is inadequate; b) an assurance that a fit-for-purpose replacement has been ordered; c) the likely timescale for its arrival.

All I've received are endless variations of the same basic advice - all of which state that "alcohol-based" sanitizer should be used.

 

[Sanatogen]

Yup and we tried to stress to management that if this is all they can understandably source then they need to reiterate that hand washing is the better option.

I still see people using just the hand sanitiser.

edit; we had one email that in the 1st paragraph asked us to try and maintain a 2m distance and then further down says 1m especially if person is coughing or sneezing

 

[railwanabe]

Is a signaller job :

1) better than driver?
2) easier to get?

 

[godfreycomplex]

Is a signaller job :

1) better than driver?
2) easier to get?

Depends on what you mean by better and easier

 

[9tfrizzco]

1) better than x?
2) easier to get than x?

No such job