Network rail reorganisation and job cuts

[the sniper]

I find it bizarre that thought is even being given to making cuts in maintenance and renewal areas, but it’s easy to cut the dirty greasy people out in the cold all day than the sorts who inhabit offices 9 til 5.

Office staff/management usually actually bear the brunt of mass cuts, followed by non safety critical customer service roles.

 

[Highlandspring]

It’s worrying for us all. Although I’m not in the Eastern Region, there’s talk, and I emphasise talk, that the size of the ‘proposed cull’ could be similar to project violet for those who remember that, but less brutal.

Oh dear. I remember it well. Many excellent people were dumped; escorted out of their offices at a moment's notice. Coucher and Bennett were both nasty pieces of work.

 

[Bald Rick]

they could make efficiencies in other ways, with all office staff working from home do they really need the office space, desk phones etc

That’s peanuts compared to staff costs. And most desk phones went years ago!

Oh dear. I remember it well. Many excellent people were dumped; escorted out of their offices at a moment's notice. Coucher and Bennett were both nasty pieces of work.

It wasn’t a moment’s notice though was it. Everyone knew what was coming.

Bennett had a dark side for sure, but Coucher was good, and extremely smart. He did have his moments, but much of that was for show.

 

[carriageline]

What was project violet for us that don’t know?

 

[Ceat0908]

What was project violet for us that don’t know?

Plenty documented on google for it. Had a look earlier.

 

[Highlandspring]

It wasn’t a moment’s notice though was it. Everyone knew what was coming.

Bennett had a dark side for sure, but Coucher was good, and extremely smart. He did have his moments, but much of that was for show.

They knew it was in the air certainly but people were called into a meeting room, given their notice and escorted from the building without even being allowed to clear their desks or speak to their (former) colleagues. Perhaps the process varied by Territory but that’s how it was here. It was a needlessly unpleasant and brutal way of doing things.

I don’t deny he was very clever but the only good thing Coucher did - in my opinion at least - was changing the company culture to normalise not wearing a tie.

 

[Worldwide]

It’ll be to do with the new technologies so less people would have to go out on track. NR will be whacking it with all these fatalities recently.

 

[Starmill]

That’s peanuts compared to staff costs. And most desk phones went years ago!

Indeed. Who isn't on Office365 now among big corporates?

 

[Bald Rick]

They knew it was in the air certainly but people were called into a meeting room, given their notice and escorted from the building without even being allowed to clear their desks or speak to their (former) colleagues. Perhaps the process varied by Territory but that’s how it was here. It was a needlessly unpleasant and brutal way of doing things.

There weren’t Territories then it was Regions.

In my region people were met at reception on their way in, and allowed to go collect stuff / see colleagues etc, although some didn’t want to. Then off to the pub for first orders.

What was project violet for us that don’t know?

A compulsory redundancy programme for the management grades. I think it was 8% of management left. It was one year after NR had taken over from Railtrack, and was seen by some as a way of demonstrating that NR had to act like a commercial organisation, as the finances were in a terrible shape, pending Tom Winsor’s then imminent CP3 settlement.

The real (and at the time top secret) reason it was done was that the decision to take maintenance in house had been made a couple of months earlier, and the size of the company was going to more than double. There were many roles marking each other in NR and maintenance and Violet was a way of creating some space in the organisation.

While it was a compulsory redundancy scheme, quite a few people who wanted to go found their way on to the list and were delighted to ‘get their cards’. The compensation was very generous, far more so than later voluntary schemes.

And why was it called Violet? That will be in my book

 

[Leicester_Loya]

this is worrying to a new starter :-/

Likewise for a fresh out the apprenticeship Grade 3, my only hope is that they think getting rid of someone they've just invested 80k+ into training for 3 years would be silly. Another bonus for my depot is how short staffed we are anyway, I think I did over 60 OT shifts last year, which sums up the levels of staffing needed.

What grade are you in mate?
I personally think there will be a huge number of people who will take VR if offered, so CR won’t be necessary in any grades if indeed if happens at all.

I think you could probably loose a chunk of staff through natural wastage if they wanted to reduce VR or CR payments anyway.

I think you're probably right. Out of our staff I reckon at least one of each grade would take VR, which in essence means another team can be cut if needed, but as we work a 6 week roster, we need 6 teams due to the fact we're faulting 24/7, although that can probably be jigged around a bit. I'd definitely be worried if I was only a maintenance team and didn't have anything to do with faulting.

What are all these technologies that people keep talking about? I've genuinely never heard of much apart from RCM (Remote Condition Monitoring) alarms etc.

 

[Highlandspring]

There weren’t Territories then it was Regions.

In my region people were met at reception on their way in, and allowed to go collect stuff / see colleagues etc, although some didn’t want to. Then off to the pub for first orders.

I’m sure we were still Scotland Territory at that point, after being a Zone and before becoming a Route (and today no one can decide if we’re back to being a Region or “Scotland’s Railway”). Your description sounds very civilised but there were some seriously upset people and unhappy scenes played out in Buchanan House. The Operations function certainly wasn’t left untouched either.

 

[Bald Rick]

I’m sure we were Scotland Territory at that point, after being a Zone and before becoming a Route (and today no one can decide if we’re back to being a Region or “Scotland’s Railway”). Your description sounds very civilised but there were some seriously upset people and unhappy scenes played out in Buchanan House.

Regions came into being 2002 - that was actually a Railtrack thing. Violet was October (possibly early November) 2003. Routes / Territories happened on 24/5/2004 (Three days after an almighty beano in the pub to mark the passing of which ever region you were in).

 

[Highlandspring]

Fair enough, that does indeed ring a bell. It’s all a long time ago now!

 

[High Dyke]

I suggest it’s likely that ops will be looked at. If I was in charge I’d be having a good hard think about what tangible benefits MIOs, IOs and SIOs bring to the table versus the vast amount of cash spent on them...

Ah yes; 'jobs for the boys'. In the past they used to dream up project management jobs, as a means to get rid of dead wood. You got a prestigious project job for a few months and then got dropped like a stone when the project failed to deliver or was scrapped.

Reading between the lines (no pun intended) the announcement by management seemed to have more of a bearing for maintenance staff, but I've already fielded questions from concerned signallers; some of whom have only just started their railway career.

 

[carriageline]

There weren’t Territories then it was Regions.

In my region people were met at reception on their way in, and allowed to go collect stuff / see colleagues etc, although some didn’t want to. Then off to the pub for first orders.




A compulsory redundancy programme for the management grades. I think it was 8% of management left. It was one year after NR had taken over from Railtrack, and was seen by some as a way of demonstrating that NR had to act like a commercial organisation, as the finances were in a terrible shape, pending Tom Winsor’s then imminent CP3 settlement.

The real (and at the time top secret) reason it was done was that the decision to take maintenance in house had been made a couple of months earlier, and the size of the company was going to more than double. There were many roles marking each other in NR and maintenance and Violet was a way of creating some space in the organisation.

While it was a compulsory redundancy scheme, quite a few people who wanted to go found their way on to the list and were delighted to ‘get their cards’. The compensation was very generous, far more so than later voluntary schemes.

And why was it called Violet? That will be in my book

Ahhh thank you. When is this bloody book making an appearance!

 

[Bald Rick]

Ahhh thank you. When is this bloody book making an appearance!

About 10 years; I still have plenty of material to collect!

 

[Annetts key]

Likewise for a fresh out the apprenticeship Grade 3, my only hope is that they think getting rid of someone they've just invested 80k+ into training for 3 years would be silly. Another bonus for my depot is how short staffed we are anyway, I think I did over 60 OT shifts last year, which sums up the levels of staffing needed.


I think you're probably right. Out of our staff I reckon at least one of each grade would take VR, which in essence means another team can be cut if needed, but as we work a 6 week roster, we need 6 teams due to the fact we're faulting 24/7, although that can probably be jigged around a bit. I'd definitely be worried if I was only a maintenance team and didn't have anything to do with faulting.

What are all these technologies that people keep talking about? I've genuinely never heard of much apart from RCM (Remote Condition Monitoring) alarms etc.

I can’t say too much at the moment, as a lot of what I was referring to are currently only pilot schemes at the moment.

If (when) they are deemed to be successful, only then will they be rolled out nationally.

But I can say that this year we had a new LED banner signal installed in our area. If everything goes to plan, it will NEVER be maintained. Because it’s only supposed to be in service for three years and the maintenance schedule is now a longer interval than three years...

 

[Hellzapoppin]

For what it’s worth PPF for Capital delivery had more jobs than people.

 

[Leicester_Loya]

I can’t say too much at the moment, as a lot of what I was referring to are currently only pilot schemes at the moment.

If (when) they are deemed to be successful, only then will they be rolled out nationally.

But I can say that this year we had a new LED banner signal installed in our area. If everything goes to plan, it will NEVER be maintained. Because it’s only supposed to be in service for three years and the maintenance schedule is now a longer interval than three years...

Jesus, doesn't sound good for us maintenance staff when you say stuff like that.

I had hoped the railway would be a career for life, I hope it still is...

 

[YorkshireBear]

All I know is whatever is coming is causing morale to drop like a stone. There are people I know in various departments saying this is the lowest they've seen morale in NR history. It certainly is the lowest I've seen morale in my 7 years.

 

[Annetts key]

I’m not trying to scare you. I’m just being realistic. Unfortunately the railway is affected by politics and despite what you may or may hear here or elsewhere, when the government wants to reduce the amount of money that is spent on maintenance, that is what happens. This trend is not new. The company’s ROSE project has already reduced the amount and frequency of maintenance of some S&T equipment. They have already said that they want to expand ROSE to equipment that was not previously included. They are also changing maintenance procedures to reduce the need for staff to work in/on or near to the four foot for safety reasons.

This effort to reduce maintenance work will continue until something happens to change their minds. I just hope that they don’t go too far and something very bad occurs.

It’s not yet clear if any of this will result in a reduced size of workforce. In past pay deals the RMT union managed to negotiate a no compulsory redundancy agreement for maintenance staff.

And certainly although it varies across the country, in many places maintenance depots are operating with a lower number of staff compared to the number of posts that currently exist.

 

[Worldwide]

I’m not trying to scare you. I’m just being realistic. Unfortunately the railway is affected by politics and despite what you may or may hear here or elsewhere, when the government wants to reduce the amount of money that is spent on maintenance, that is what happens. This trend is not new. The company’s ROSE project has already reduced the amount and frequency of maintenance of some S&T equipment. They have already said that they want to expand ROSE to equipment that was not previously included. They are also changing maintenance procedures to reduce the need for staff to work in/on or near to the four foot for safety reasons.

This effort to reduce maintenance work will continue until something happens to change their minds. I just hope that they don’t go too far and something very bad occurs.

It’s not yet clear if any of this will result in a reduced size of workforce. In past pay deals the RMT union managed to negotiate a no compulsory redundancy agreement for maintenance staff.

And certainly although it varies across the country, in many places maintenance depots are operating with a lower number of staff compared to the number of posts that currently exist.

The compulsory redundancy agreement clause was removed from last years band 5-8 pay talks.

 

[Tom Quinne]

I’m not trying to scare you. I’m just being realistic. Unfortunately the railway is affected by politics and despite what you may or may hear here or elsewhere, when the government wants to reduce the amount of money that is spent on maintenance, that is what happens. This trend is not new. The company’s ROSE project has already reduced the amount and frequency of maintenance of some S&T equipment. They have already said that they want to expand ROSE to equipment that was not previously included. They are also changing maintenance procedures to reduce the need for staff to work in/on or near to the four foot for safety reasons.

This effort to reduce maintenance work will continue until something happens to change their minds. I just hope that they don’t go too far and something very bad occurs.

It’s not yet clear if any of this will result in a reduced size of workforce. In past pay deals the RMT union managed to negotiate a no compulsory redundancy agreement for maintenance staff.

And certainly although it varies across the country, in many places maintenance depots are operating with a lower number of staff compared to the number of posts that currently exist.

What happened last time maintenance was deemed non essential....

October 2000 and May 2002 spring mind, not to mention February 2007 the latter a team “on the firm” not a contractor.

Of course the root cause of last year’s tragedy is yet to be fully established...but.....

It’s okay though those who force these cues don’t use trains, so their safe as houses only the plebs use the loser cruisers.

 

[Tom Quinne]

The compulsory redundancy agreement clause was removed from last years band 5-8 pay talks.

Brand 4 through to 1 includes LOMs and senior grades doesn’t it?

 

[Leicester_Loya]

All I know is whatever is coming is causing morale to drop like a stone. There are people I know in various departments saying this is the lowest they've seen morale in NR history. It certainly is the lowest I've seen morale in my 7 years.

It's a bit poor how they just emailed that out, causing a lot of stress and anxiety for thousands of employees, doesn't paint them in the best picture, especially not when they claim to be a 'family friendly' company.

Apparently we're due to receive an email from our manager next week, will see what that entails.

Also heard of job vacancies in Pway coming up in my area, so doesn't look like all departments will be effected by this.

 

[Bald Rick]

The compulsory redundancy agreement clause was removed from last years band 5-8 pay talks.

Strictly speaking, it expired and was not extended.

 

[CJK64]

On Mondays briefing from Ellie Burrows, she mentioned the fact that we are running with 30% more staff than we had in 2012.
The last time we saw anything on this scale was 2BC. On that occasion the redundancies were handled by the way of voluntary, not to the scale of 30% though, plus as someone has already mentioned, compulsory redundancies was not an option.
The offer on the table last time ;(voluntary redundancy) was two and a half weeks pay for every year served plus one week pay for every year over 40 yo.

The pandemic has had a massive impact on the running of the railway and a restructure/remodel is needed, no one quite knows how that will look as yet but major changes are on the way for sure.

 

[Bald Rick]

On Mondays briefing from Ellie Burrows, she mentioned the fact that we are running with 30% more staff than we had in 2012.

That’s a company level figure. I’m not sure how it relates to maintenance.

 

[CJK64]

That’s a company level figure. I’m not sure how it relates to maintenance.

Absolutely, this is across the board. Many new managerial roles were created for the PPF programme.

This would have been a nightmare to organise at any time but throw into the mix the fact that the new fatigue legislation comes into play plus the new instruction of zero RZ working and this becomes even more difficult.

 

[Annetts key]

Keep also in mind that in many areas, the 2B/C reorg underestimated the actual workload. So some of the jobs (posts) created since then on the maintenance side, has been to fill in these holes. An example is off-track, who in some areas just could not cope with the amount of drainage work and vegetation control work that was required.

And as electrification has expanded since the 2B/C reorg, the OHL departments have had to expand. But until the vast majority of trains are fully electric, the potential savings from a reduction of track maintenance will not be seen.