Metal_gee_man
Member
- Joined
- 28 Oct 2017
- Messages
- 669
I have noticed a large upswing in various large agencies supplying TOCs with staff who in effect are taking job roles that should and traditionally were carried out by TOC directly employed, TOC directly pensioned, TOC unionised employees who earn considerably more than their agency counterparts whilst undertaking some very important roles.
The main culprits for me are all the GOVIA Franchises, Contracts & Direct awards so SouthEastern, Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern using On-Trak, I've noticed an abundance of Adecco staff working for SWR as well.
Please add more if you know about others
My point is should TOCs be allowed to prioritise profits over safety?
As many of these people are not going through the industry safety training that a permanent, competent, full trained staff do, what apart from visability are they bringing to the company, because you'd assume they couldn't be experienced enough in revenue control to man barriers and check tickets. The TOCs can't be using them for safety critical roles such as train dispatch could they?
Well they are very heavily used in these tasks, I was "Lucky" enough to speak to one last night at Basingstoke at the Gateline, I asked him if a train had left yet based upon the time being exactly when it was due to leave and he grunted at me and said yes mate you missed it, to which I found out it left 4 minutes late via RTT.
I've seen people being let through barriers at Ashford Int because the person confused the On-Trak guy with some concessionary ticket bull which made me an enthusiast laugh so much because of how wrong this guy was.
Or the team of them at East Croydon Station with dispatch paddles in hand and whistles at the ready dispatching trains during peak hours.
So what other jobs are they taking away from their better paid colleagues at these TOCs?
I agree with them being used for crowd control at busy stations, I agree with them freeing up important TOC staff by cleaning toilets and cleaning the platforms. I think many are being used by SWR for security and welfare people too.
I just feel like it's a going too far putting profits over safety when they are regularly left unsupervised to carry out roles that shouldn't be in the agency sectors remit.
Sorry rant over
The main culprits for me are all the GOVIA Franchises, Contracts & Direct awards so SouthEastern, Thameslink, Great Northern, Southern using On-Trak, I've noticed an abundance of Adecco staff working for SWR as well.
Please add more if you know about others
My point is should TOCs be allowed to prioritise profits over safety?
As many of these people are not going through the industry safety training that a permanent, competent, full trained staff do, what apart from visability are they bringing to the company, because you'd assume they couldn't be experienced enough in revenue control to man barriers and check tickets. The TOCs can't be using them for safety critical roles such as train dispatch could they?
Well they are very heavily used in these tasks, I was "Lucky" enough to speak to one last night at Basingstoke at the Gateline, I asked him if a train had left yet based upon the time being exactly when it was due to leave and he grunted at me and said yes mate you missed it, to which I found out it left 4 minutes late via RTT.
I've seen people being let through barriers at Ashford Int because the person confused the On-Trak guy with some concessionary ticket bull which made me an enthusiast laugh so much because of how wrong this guy was.
Or the team of them at East Croydon Station with dispatch paddles in hand and whistles at the ready dispatching trains during peak hours.
So what other jobs are they taking away from their better paid colleagues at these TOCs?
I agree with them being used for crowd control at busy stations, I agree with them freeing up important TOC staff by cleaning toilets and cleaning the platforms. I think many are being used by SWR for security and welfare people too.
I just feel like it's a going too far putting profits over safety when they are regularly left unsupervised to carry out roles that shouldn't be in the agency sectors remit.
Sorry rant over