[Article] Rail drivers angry at 'safety pressure', here we go again

[Mark Gleeson]

And yes Iarnrod Eireann under the 2005 Rail Safety bill can do random drug and alcohol tests on all operations grade staff, yes the drivers already have an annual set of rules exams and there is the annual medical and the drivers voted on that some years back

Talk about creating a fuss over accepted proceedures which are inforceable in Irish law

Originally Posted by Irish Independent

Rail drivers angry at 'safety pressure'

IARNROD Eireann's drivers fear a stricter new safety regime being introduced for recently purchased high-speed trains could lead to staff penalties and put jobs at risk.

The drivers have been issued with nine different manuals following the purchase of 150 new high-speed intercity coaches, the Labour Court was told.

Siptu and the NBRU claim a number of the new safety standards introduced without consultation were "significantly impacting" on the drivers' careers.

The unions told the court "there was a perception that the new safety standards would have a detrimental impact on job security".

One of the safety measures, Standard 23, "is known to the locomotive drivers as a point system in which a driver would have a number of points allocated against him over his driving career.

"A driver after reaching 25 points could find his driving career in serious jeopardy," the unions told a hearing earlier this month.

The changes also involve a new qualification for the drivers, more random medicals, yearly written exams and a further safety standard on drugs and alcohol in the workplace.

© Irish Independent 2006
http://www.unison.ie/irish_independe...issue_id=13612

[Kevin K Kelehan]

What 'high speed trains'?

[Donal Quinn]

"A driver after reaching 25 points could find his driving career in serious jeopardy," the unions told a hearing earlier this month."


I'd love to know what sort of offences get you 25 points

even better, how muh stuff could a driver do and still be only on 24 points - i.e. still allowed to control a train with hundreds of people on board....

[Mark Gleeson]

Do you get points for not turning the tail lights on correctly, I'd have a serious number of DART drivers in trouble on that one. I caused some trouble a few years back when I complained of a incident on board a train, I challenged the driver who was no use I then made a formal complaint, got a response, was told it didn't happen, driver didn't report the fault, he failed to perform his duty (he was using his wrist to hold the controller handle down) there was no fault anyway, cover up ? DART unit appeared in Inchicore the following week.......

There is nothing shocking or unusual in this, it is common practice to keep on each drivers record a list of offences, eg signals passed at danger (thankfully quite rare in Ireland) it is a safety management issue

If I was a driver I'd be more worried by the fact the RSC can fine them up to €100,000 or 5 years in the nick. And yes I can recall one incident in Dublin recently enough where that could have been used, in fact one in my opinion on the information available that driver should have been fired as result

Its time these drivers got real its not IE trying this on they are just bringing proceedures in line with the new rail safety act

The first and overridding responsibilty of all in the rail industry is safety and we welcome any reasonable initiate and proceedures which aims to improve safety

[GavinG]

Here we go again is right.

These Unions boys would want to get a grip. And yeah i laughed about the high speed train bit too Talk about making a mountain out of a mohill !