SIGN ON / SIGN OFF ARRANGEMENTS

12 January 2010

Dear Traincrew,

The AFULE met with Senior QR Regional Freight Management on Monday 11 January 2010 with respect to the sign on/sign off issue. The AFULE requested for the paid travel time to and from quarters/hotels to remain.

It was agreed between the parties that QR Regional Freight will provide passive time where quarters/hotels are not within walking distance of arrival depot provided the passive time is not counted as part of the shift, does not count towards lying off calculations and will not be used in LOH breaches.

The time will be credited to your annual cycle time. The following depots and proposed passive time were tabled and agreed;

 ·         Acacia Ridge                            10 mins,

·         Fishermans Island                  nil

·         Toowoomba                             10 mins

·         Roma                                          5 mins

·         Charleville                                  nil

·         Goondiwindi                              nil

·         Maryborough                             15 mins

·         Rockhampton                           10 mins

·         Mackay                                       15 mins

·         Townsville                                 10 mins

·         Cairns                                        15 mins

·         Emerald                                     10 mins

·         Longreach                                 nil

·         Charters Towers                      nil

If there is a change of hotel in the future that requires additional travel time, then the parties will need to sit down and amend accordingly.

When the applicable time allowance occurs on a BLP/SLP, it will be paid at the rate applicable to the day as a stand alone payment and will not go to annualised hours. On penalty days other than SLP/BLP, the time allowance will be treated as above and will be paid at the rate applicable to the day.

In addition to the above, QR Regional Freight will be developing LOP’s which will have an identical format across all depots but will include depot specifics for supervised and unsupervised sign on/off for traincrew at foreign quarters at each depot.

Further, the LOP’s will state that incoming traincrew are to contact the arrival foreign depot where supervision is 24/7 at a nominated time (e.g. 15 mins out) to ensure the supervisor will be available to sign off and to arrange room keys etc. Unsupervised depots are to ensure arrangements are in place for arriving traincrew to remove any requirement for actions to be undertaken at quarters/hotels except for notification of arrival times and associated matters.

The following timeframes have been agreed to finalise this matter:

1.    QR Regional Freight to draft LOP’s by midday Friday 15 January 2010 and provide to unions

2.    The AFULE to provide to local representatives

3.    The AFULE to respond to QR Regional Freight by cob Wednesday 20 January 2010.

4.    QR Regional Freight to make any necessary changes by Friday 22 January 2010.

5.    Implementation date is Tuesday 26 January 2010.

The AFULE will provide the draft LOP’s once received on Friday 15 January 2010 and will forward to local representatives to distribute to the membership.

If you have any queries in relation to this matter, please don’t hesitate to contact the State Office on (07) 3257 1151 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Yours fraternally

GREG SMITH

STATE SECRETARY