Hull Trains Redundancies?

[westv]

I was watching the local BBC news at lunchtime and they had an item about HTs and them perhaps making some ostaff redundant. I didn't see the full item nor can I see anything mentioned when I google. Anybody know more?

 

[Fyldeboy]

According to the RMT website, the redundancies are to the Call Centre, as FirstGroup have one in Sheffield

REDUNDANCIES - HULL TRAINS

I have received a report from the Lead Officer, together with the company’s consultation documents, suggesting potential redundancies and a proposed TUPE transfer of Customer Service Advisors from Hull Call Centre to First Customer Contact Centre (FCC) at Sheffield.

The Lead Officer has indicated that the Customer Service Advisors do not come under the Collective Bargaining and the RMT do not have recognition for these grades. However, the Lead Officer has emphasised the severity of the move in distance and the impact it will have on our members and asked Hull Trains to make full use of modern technology by transferring calls from one call centre to another, keeping these jobs in Hull.

The matter has been subject to recent consideration by the union’s National Executive Committee who notes with concern the company are looking at making a number of our members redundant.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I sadly think there maybe more to come across the whole rail industry. I really hope I am wrong.

 

[Bald Rick]

I sadly think there maybe more to come across the whole rail industry. I really hope I am wrong.

You’re not.

 

[HullRailMan]

Look North also reporting that this affects on board catering staff.

 

[westv]

Look North also reporting that this affects on board catering staff.

Which doesn't bode well for on board food going forward.

 

[Geeves]

Feel sorry for those guys at First. It seems to start with the TPO grades first at Northern I don't know why because they always have to hire more. The most recent posts at Northern are for economists and analysts which is never really a good sign, nice work if you can get it when its pushing North of 60 grand a year.

 

[221129]

As far as I know, this was always planned and is nothing to do with COVID. It's happening at other First Group TOCs centralising to the Group Contact Centre in Sheffield.

 

[Qwerty133]

As far as I know, this was always planned and is nothing to do with COVID. It's happening at other First Group TOCs centralising to the Group Contact Centre in Sheffield.

It also makes sense. To have a separate contact centre for an operation as small as Hull Trains cannot be efficient in the slightest both in terms of significant amounts of dead time when everything is going well (as the number of people phoning HT on a typical day is surely very small) and in terms of constrained capacity when something goes wrong making it hard for passengers to get through.

 

[DorkingMain]

My managers have revelled in a variety of stupid job titles changing every couple of years. Customer Experience Manager, Customer Service Manager, Train Service Manager, Service Delivery Manager etc.

Every single one was non customer facing and line managed/conducted operational technical assessments on train guards.

Funnily enough each change in job title usually coincided with a pay cut/change in responsibilities.

Yep, that's the crux of it. Stupid as all these job titles may seem, they're a (very expensive) role being broken up into several much more disposable roles.
It adds the flexibility to then scale the function back if they decide the wallet is looking a bit barren.

I work in railway management, and far from it being a gravy train, it's actually generally been quite undesirable. I'm not in it for pay (I get paid a very similar figure to when I was traincrew), my phone buzzes 24/7 with emails and calls, and I often end up taking on responsibilities that one would very much consider on the fringe of my role.

I would happily go back to my old guard / conductor role - the only motivation for me to move beyond it was Mon - Fri working hours and the fact that the DfT have forever got their sights on destroying guards' grades across the country.



Moderator note: some posts split to:

• https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/front-line-staff-are-you-worried-about-job-security.209104/

• Is the railway in general top heavy with managers?

  Moderator note: Split from https://www.railforums.co.uk/threads/hull-trains-redundancies.209756/ The writing has been on the wall for some time. Hull trains have been on the slide due to a terrible reliability record for over a year. They were never in a position to deal with this crisis. The...

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