Meetings with RTBU Metro station staff have been held with the upcoming planned closures of both Surrey Hills station and Mont Albert Station.
A new station called “Union” is set to commence operations in May 2023.
The new station is part of the Level Crossing Removal Project (LXRA), which has seen a significant number of dangerous level crossings removed.
The proposed changes also impact Box Hill station, with significant changes made to Safeworking operations.
Initial meetings with members, in line with the major change consultation provisions of the EA, have occurred to outline potential impacts on rostering and staffing issues.
Station staff currently at Surrey Hills will be relocated to the new Union station.
The RTBU has written to Metro to outline matters to be addressed and to remind Metro of their obligations under the EA to consult with impacted station staff.
A major concerns of Members is that the consultation period’s timing places the finalisation of consultation two days after Christmas, smack bang in the middle of staff leave.
For the consultation to be adhered to adequately, affected Members require a proper time frame to address any issues that arise, and considering the new station is 5 to 6 months away for completion, managements rush to the finish line is bizarre. The RTBU will continue to hold management accountable to ensure any members issues are addressed.
In other developments, we are again approaching Christmas and the New year, and already there have been several reports of attempted assaults and threats on members.
The RTBU has participated in several risk reviews, including when station staff are to clear trains of passengers prior to the service been shunted out.
At a number of stations this procedure is now done in pairs, going through the train together rather than doing it separately, and all reports so far show that is working well.
The RTBU has also been requested to conduct HSR elections across a range of stations and these will be kicking off shortly, at Flinders Street it will also include the need the endorse a change to the Designated Work Group representation from 2 reps to 4, to adequately represent staff numbers at this location.
Finally, I would like to thank all the hard work that RTBU station representatives do day in and day out, and often in their own time. Next year is the start of the campaign for a new Metro EA, and we have a hard working team of Delegates to lead the way!
To all delegates and members, I wish you all a happy Christmas and festive season, bring on 2023.
