QLD Rail - Station Operations Negotiations

The Combined Unions Delegates and officials met today where QR provided an updated offer.

One great piece of news to announce before summarising the outcomes from today is that both Unions have supported the conversion of Fixed Term NGR Porters to permanent roles through our joint log of claims. These roles were set up under a temporary Business Operating Model (BOM) and QR Station management have been employing NGR fixed term Porters since 2017.

This type of employment has been a point of contention for some years particularly the so-called temporary nature of the BOM and today the Services Union received direct advice from the state government that they will be supporting the Unions position to convert the current Fixed Term NGR Porters (approx. 200) into Permanent roles. There will need to be further meetings with QR to work through the details!

In terms of all the other claims we commenced the meeting with a Union caucus to finalise our position on the Rostering Principles that QR have agreed to include in the EA.  We continue to fine tune the rostering principles to align to our claims to support a more stable roster with longer roster notice periods.

In relation to the discussion document, we commented as follows:

  • Wage offer – The same as previously advised and the Unions support this offer.
  • Remove the requirement for team members to identify a third GSM group.
  • GSM Rate won’t include the GSM on-call allowance, but this allowance will also be included in the 12.75% superannuation.
  • Shift Worker Definition – QR Agreed that there should be one definition of a shift worker which will be included in the Glossary of Terms. QR to provide draft wording for our review.
  • Rostering Principles to form part of the agreement.
  • Posting of rosters – The Unions agreed that the rosters should be posted 14 days in advance.  There is potential with the new Day of Operations Roster Schedule (DOORS) software and may provide for greater notice periods greater than 14 days.
  • Leave Links – It was agreed that the Leave Links should be scattered across the GSM roster and that the Links should be noted as AM or PM Leave Links. There will need to be a working party to review the rosters when the AM and PM Leave Links are included in the Master Rosters.
  • Employees will have the option of accruing TOIL instead of overtime. TOIL rate shall be accrued at ordinary time. Where the time is not taken within 4 weeks, the overtime will be paid out.
  • Shift Ticket Officers – The option of including STOs in the Station Operations agreement was discussed and it was agreed that the STOs should be consulted directly with the support from their Union, before any decisions are contemplated.
  • Where a GSM takes 4 weeks or more of leave, there should be an EOI called to determine who best to back fill the role with a focus on professional development.
  • Where a GSM takes less than 4 weeks leave, the GSM can identify the SM or ASM from within the group who is best placed to back fill the GSM during this leave period.
  • The In Vehicle Asset Monitoring systems was discussed and the Union confirmed that there was no support for an IVAM System in any of the agreements.

We are waiting for QR to provide some draft clauses as noted above and both the Unions and we will advise the next steps for the STO consultation process.

If you have any questions, please direct them to our Organiser Jacqui Pedersen on 0447 092 388 or by email [email protected] 


Above: The ASU is the union fighting for workers at Queensland Rail