Weekends and part-time railway jobs

[Bucephalus]

Apologies for the naivety here, but I'm surprised that I couldn't find a single flexible weekend working job opening when I did a quick browse of railway jobs. Especially given the current strike situation, I would have thought it would be attractive to workers and TOCs alike to offer weekend-only positions for some roles which I'm sure would be attractive both to those who are employed during the week and want additional income on an ad-hoc basis, as well as to those who want an initial opening into a longer-term railway career.

I guess my rationale is that gets incredibly frustrating as a passenger to see 'cancelled due to a shortage of train crew' on the departure board, knowing that I would be more than willing to work one or two weekend days a month to fill untaken slots. I appreciate there will be an upfront training (and recruitment) cost, but I'd have thought it would be beneficial in the long-run, especially if it helps reduce weekend rotas for full time employees (for those that would prefer not to have them).

I am a complete outsider to the careers side of the railways so don't be too critical if I've misunderstood something.

What about Ontrak recruitment? I think they still supply station staff to TOCs and they're an agency so might be good for casual work

 

[geoffk]

Perhaps it's more important for train companies to do more to keep their staff. I read that 12 drivers recently moved from Northern to GBRF. In BR days, I believe there was one rate of pay and one set of terms & conditions for each role but privatisation turned that into a free for all. Do training costs have to be repaid if a member of staff leaves within a certain time period?

 

[357]

I don't know of any trainees that are recruited to work part time (though I think C2C might be the one TOC that does it?

Yes, although they work full time while training and with their instructors.

After passing out they go onto a roster that averages 5 days per week (on weeks when you're working), no weekends, and shift lengths up to 6 hours.

However that roster could change in future - the contract simply states 20 hours per week average vs 35 for full time.