The Rail Tram & Bus Union claims Melbourne operator Metro Trains has sacked five of its members over an alleged safety concern which the union says was a systemic issue which should have been addressed by Metro long ago.
RTBU state secretary Luba Grigorovitch on Monday said a group of five workers had been sacked, two of whom were leading delegates in the union.
“Together these men hold almost 100 years of track safety experience,” Grigorovitch said.
“Today’s heavy handed decision by Metro to terminate a group of track maintenance workers, four days before Christmas, fails to address systemic safety issues in the industry.”
The union claims the workers were dismissed for alleged safety breaches, despite the fact that their actions were part of longstanding work practices, which the union says Metro has “failed to take seriously since taking control of the operation”.
“Failing to take localised action to improve safety and offer the training necessary to rectify these systemic issues, Metro management has negligently maintained the status quo, only now exploiting the issue to selectively eliminate this work group while others escape unscathed,” Grigorovitch claimed.
“If management are serious about improving safety and changing culture, not changing personnel, we need to see the promotion and education of safe work practices amongst and for workers.
“But the truth is, there has been little effort made by management to change and enforce these longstanding practices.”
Grigorovitch accused the passenger operator of unfairly treating workers, poorly applying policies, “sham contracting”, and short-changing the public on an “ongoing” basis.
“This year the RTBU has contacted Metro about safety on many occasions but little has been actioned by the company to deliver critical changes,” she claimed.
“Metro must do more to ensure proper processes, education, and training are delivered to workers in order to address safety issues in the network’s infrastructure maintenance department.”