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Harecastle Tunnel employees to be made redundant.


wandering snail

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4 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

One other thing that worries me about using vollies is that they can turn up for duty, or not, as and when they feel like it. Imagine how many people's holidays would be ruined by just one man deciding he couldn't be bothered to attend for one day, including those who had hired from Black Prince at Stoke, failing to get back in time and losing their deposit as a result plus messing up their travel arrangements and delaying the holidays of the people who had hired for the following week.

Bit like the Lifeboat crews, St John's ambulance and 25% of the fire service.

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4 minutes ago, Keeping Up said:

One other thing that worries me about using vollies is that they can turn up for duty, or not, as and when they feel like it. Imagine how many people's holidays would be ruined by just one man deciding he couldn't be bothered to attend for one day, including those who had hired from Black Prince at Stoke, failing to get back in time and losing their deposit as a result plus messing up their travel arrangements and delaying the holidays of the people who had hired for the following week.

Once that happens CRT will come under real pressure from the hire fleets to stop it happening again.

N

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The IWA have responded to this saying they have taken it up with C&RT whos response was the volunteers were to re enforce the full time keepers  not replace.

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Response received from CRT:
"Statement from Canal & River Trust re Harecastle Tunnel - We have advertised for volunteers, to work alongside our seasonal and full time colleagues, to join the team at Harecastle Tunnel so we can reduce the amount of time boaters are having to wait for passage. We are not reducing existing seasonal and full time colleagues. Due to the restrictions of Covid 19 we have been operating the tunnel on reduced hours which has caused delays and boater frustration. Having a bigger team will mean we can offer additional flexibility and cover sickness, holidays and potential extended opening hours."
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On 27/08/2020 at 17:36, ditchcrawler said:

Bit like the Lifeboat crews, St John's ambulance and 25% of the fire service.

The Fire Service "Wombles" as my brother (a retired full time fireman) used to call them aren't volunteers (or weren't until recently if they are) they are paid a retainer and turnout fees.

 

Edit to add.   It seems there may not be turn out fees any more but in Cumbria at least the situations is:

 

Retaining fee starting at £2,386 a year for trainee and rising up to £3,053 a year for competent firefighter providing cover of 120 hours a week.

 

"Providing cover" means being available when called and within 5 minutes of the station.

Edited by Jerra
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On 26/08/2020 at 23:02, zenataomm said:

You can only make a person redundant because their job doesn't exist any more.  That's what redundant means.

So after doing that and removing the post from the organisation, utilising a volunteer to continue the duties, wouldn't be a wise move.  It would leave the door wide open for those staff now unemployed to have their day in court.

 

I imagine what has really happened is no one has lost their employment.  More likely a local restructuring has identified duties more important to the organisation and are using the staff to better advantage in order to support the key operations of the organisation.  That will allow volunteers to be trained up to backfill, usually it's suggested that in the future should needs & budgets allow it the posts could return to being active and those filling it as volunteers welcomed as applicants.

 

Then again what do I know?

I know that one of the seasonal tunnel keepers has retired in the last few weeks. I don't know if he was elbowed out though.

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On 27/08/2020 at 17:36, ditchcrawler said:

Bit like the Lifeboat crews, St John's ambulance and 25% of the fire service.

I don't know about St John's, but aren't Lifeboat crews & Fire personal retained? and therefore paid a retainer, so not really comparable.

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On 27/08/2020 at 17:34, ditchcrawler said:

Some months ago I copied a Facebook message here with the posters name on it. A member here who is also on FB got upset about it.

A member got upset on someone else’s behalf?

If the message you posted had the originators name on it then they clearly were happy to put their name to the message content. It’s not as if you added someone’s name to a random message. If the originator of said message didn’t want their name out on social media they probably shouldn’t use it and should use a pseudonym instead. Once you go public you are public and need to deal with it.

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On 28/08/2020 at 19:24, ditchcrawler said:

The IWA have responded to this saying they have taken it up with C&RT whos response was the volunteers were to re enforce the full time keepers  not replace.

badge icon
Response received from CRT:
"Statement from Canal & River Trust re Harecastle Tunnel - We have advertised for volunteers, to work alongside our seasonal and full time colleagues, to join the team at Harecastle Tunnel so we can reduce the amount of time boaters are having to wait for passage. We are not reducing existing seasonal and full time colleagues. Due to the restrictions of Covid 19 we have been operating the tunnel on reduced hours which has caused delays and boater frustration. Having a bigger team will mean we can offer additional flexibility and cover sickness, holidays and potential extended opening hours."

How will a bigger team help or reduce the time waiting??, and what on earth have Covid restrictions got to do w.ith it?

There's one person at each end, and you can't go in till everyone's out. I can't see the justification for either reduced hours or having to book.

 

  • Greenie 4
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18 minutes ago, Arthur Marshall said:

How will a bigger team help or reduce the time waiting??, and what on earth have Covid restrictions got to do w.ith it?

There's one person at each end, and you can't go in till everyone's out. I can't see the justification for either reduced hours or having to book.

 

The quiet voice of sanity and experience once again, Arthur, the boater.?

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2 hours ago, Bewildered said:

A member got upset on someone else’s behalf?

If the message you posted had the originators name on it then they clearly were happy to put their name to the message content. It’s not as if you added someone’s name to a random message. If the originator of said message didn’t want their name out on social media they probably shouldn’t use it and should use a pseudonym instead. Once you go public you are public and need to deal with it.

Only people who are members of the group it is posted in can read the post. If I put the name on here anyone can read it

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

How will a bigger team help or reduce the time waiting??, and what on earth have Covid restrictions got to do w.ith it?

There's one person at each end, and you can't go in till everyone's out. I can't see the justification for either reduced hours or having to book.

 

I agree with Arthur. The response from CaRT was pathetic and confirms what little understanding their management people have of operating the waterways as an efficient going concern. 

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1 hour ago, Arthur Marshall said:

How will a bigger team help or reduce the time waiting??, and what on earth have Covid restrictions got to do w.ith it?

There's one person at each end, and you can't go in till everyone's out. I can't see the justification for either reduced hours or having to book.

 

More people would in theory permit longer hours, staggered lunch breaks, so more transits per day. In theory.

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5 minutes ago, AndrewIC said:

More people would in theory permit longer hours, staggered lunch breaks, so more transits per day. In theory.

The question is, has anyone failed to get through the way it was before Covid, I think the longest I waited was maybe an hour and a bit, just miss one lot going in and have to wait for the others coming towards you.

 

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Just now, ditchcrawler said:

The question is, has anyone failed to get through the way it was before Covid, I think the longest I waited was maybe an hour and a bit, just miss one lot going in and have to wait for the others coming towards you.

 

Precisely. No problems before covid.

9 minutes ago, AndrewIC said:

More people would in theory permit longer hours, staggered lunch breaks, so more transits per day. In theory.

The problem is not with staff shortages. It is due to shorter operating times which is, laughingly, blamed on covid.

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8 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

The question is, has anyone failed to get through the way it was before Covid, I think the longest I waited was maybe an hour and a bit, just miss one lot going in and have to wait for the others coming towards you.

 

Missed it once by a whisker, spent the night at the southern end, but I’ve justbeen to CRT stoppage site to check the opening hours, and on the current version they’re not there! Latest email with them says current opening hours are 8am-2pm, 7 days a week (42 hours) rather than the usual summer 8am-6pm, 7 days a week (70 hours). You could just about cover the former with 2 bodies, one at each end, but not normal hours. 
 

at the moment if you arrive at 2.05pm you’ll have a long wait until tomorrow!

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49 minutes ago, AndrewIC said:

Missed it once by a whisker, spent the night at the southern end, but I’ve justbeen to CRT stoppage site to check the opening hours, and on the current version they’re not there! Latest email with them says current opening hours are 8am-2pm, 7 days a week (42 hours) rather than the usual summer 8am-6pm, 7 days a week (70 hours). You could just about cover the former with 2 bodies, one at each end, but not normal hours. 
 

at the moment if you arrive at 2.05pm you’ll have a long wait until tomorrow!

No, you only need two bodies, one at each end. That's the Covid safety thing. No reason it has to be the same two bodies all day. That's just halving the cost, nothing to do with virus restrictions. Having more people at each end at the same time isn't going to speed anything up at all.

They slowed it down a while back when they stopped paying the guys over their lunch break, and told them they had to go off duty for half an hour - which meant no boats could either be put in or be travelling during that time.

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On 27/08/2020 at 17:36, BEngo said:

Once that happens CRT will come under real pressure from the hire fleets to stop it happening again.

N

Please tell me how any company /boater exerts pressure?

I find organisations whose  main income is from non customers have adopted a 'defensive' strategy, forget customer services, use a call centre and a checklist.

 

Edited by LadyG
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7 hours ago, Arthur Marshall said:

CRT don't usually fix what's broke these days, either!

I am astounded at the dreadful standards of construction, materials eg untreated wood on structural edifices, it's downright dangerous. I don't know how to compain effectively. Obviously call centre is useless inthis regard.

I intend to send a pdf type report to Richard Parry with a hard copy to the contracts manager and Richard Parry, is there a H&S manager, everyone's a manager these days it seems.

Edited by LadyG
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2 hours ago, LadyG said:

I am astounded at the dreadful standards of construction, materials eg untreated wood on structural edifices, it's downright dangerous. I don't know how to compain effectively. Obviously call centre is useless inthis regard.

I intend to send a pdf type report to Richard Parry with a hard copy to the contracts manager and Richard Parry, is there a H&S manager, everyone's a manager these days it seems.

My brain is probably not properly awake yet but... 

I have been trying to work out what you are referring to here. By structural edifices do you mean locks and bridges? and how is untreated wood downright dangerous? 

Not making excuses for C & RT but they have to maintain an over 200 year old structure with limited funds and they at times probably have to settle for a less expensive option .

 

haggis

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