Wasting my money again

[colmoc]

IRISH Rail has been paying trainee drivers about €21,000 a week for up to five months to do nothing, it was claimed last night.
An insider estimated that 29 drivers - whose training has been stalled due to a dispute - simply clocked in every day as a result, sat next to another driver as he drove the train to Cork, Galway or Dublin, travelled home and clocked back out again. Due to the dispute, the trainee drivers were "completely non-productive", the insider claimed.
Last night, a spokesman for Irish Rail confirmed that due to a dispute over paying qualified drivers to teach trainees, the training process had been stalled. The spokesman said he could not confirm how much the trainees were paid on a weekly basis. The trainee drivers affected are located in Connolly Station, at Inchicore and in Cork and Waterford.
The Irish Rail spokesman said the stand-off had now been resolved. Qualified drivers would be paid €13.50 a day to offer practical training to the trainees, he said.

www.unison.ie
Need I even comment on this article?? Wasters

[Mark Gleeson]

It could be more stupid Indo reporting trainee drivers spend weeks on end sitting in the cab doing nothing, most of the training program is about learning the line and its features, the trainees are in fact doing something productive

This is standard practice the world over accept in Ireland a driver has to know nearly even single piece of track which takes time

[Derek Wheeler]

The Indo article is in fact true.

P11 has learned today that a senior IE manager has introduced a driver training programme that now takes 48 weeks as opposed to the usual 52 weeks. (standard practice in the UK apparently)It also includes a position called "leading Driver". This is a position where an existing driver becomes responsible for training and must do the paperwork on the trainee. Drivers selected for this position were originally offered an additional €10 per day by IE. They refused this and looked for €20 per day. Mediation followed and a figure of €13.50 was arrived at. After tax, it won't amount to much anyway.

Trainees were in fact signing on to work and sitting in a cab, beside a driver, long after they should have been cleared to drive. It has been claimed that up to €400,000 was spent on salaries to drivers that didn't actually drive.

[Mark Gleeson]

I've got a copy of the training schedule. The current New Deal program is 62 weeks in length, however 9.5 weeks are guards training. There was the "47 week" proposal which was not implemented at the time

There is 16 weeks of second man operation on top of 16 weeks shunting (or 9 weeks secondman and 7 shunting). The union agreeed in 2000 to the fact the second man would drive under supervision of the driver. Note they signed up to this in 2000

At this point it should be noted all locomotives are dual control so they can be driven from either the left or right seat so the supervising driver still has full control at all times

[Derek Wheeler]

Well obviously the 47 or 48 week proposal is now on the table. Standard in the UK and Mark, you know who's pushing it through. He wasn't with the company in 2000.

Forget 6 year old documents. This company operates outside of accountability and transparency and underwent a serious management purge in 2004.

[Mark Gleeson]

HQ had signed up for 47 weeks it was local management which retained the longer period, of course it is local management who certify the drivers