O/T Train Drivers!

[bigreddog]

My local village bobby thru himself in front of a train 18 months ago and the driver is still off work !!!! I know that doesn't answere Keiths question but there are quiet a lot of railway suicides down here !!

Off work on full pay Yes traumatised probably, stressed most likely but if they're not better after after 3-6mths then they're not going to get over it, ever They should have started dismissal (even on medical grounds with a possible medical pay out) well before now but the trouble is like has already been said, the union is far too powerful. Train drivers are off work at the drop of a hat because if they feel the slighest bit sick or not 100% well then they are not advised to refrain from work and i understand why and agree but 18mths on full pay without a stitch of work with the unemployed like it is. Get real!

considering we've moved off industrial relations, sunday working et al onto psychiatry I really have to pile in here. your statement is patently not true. Many people who have experienced trauma have stress reactions in the early weeks and months which is absolutely normal, some people have no reaction at all. It pretty much depends on circumstances, the individual and a whole range of things. we don't even need to medicalise at that stage (all too many people in the professions want to though and it doesn't make things better). but I've treated full blown PTSD sufferers who had improved or received any treatment of any kind from the Falklands war upwards of twenty years after the event and got them back to something approaching normal (whatever that is). If somebody threw themselves in front of my vehicle I don't know how I would react, and I don't want to know. but I would at least expect my emloyer to appreciate that I should at least have the right to react in my own way, whether he's had experience of people swinging the lead or not.

[Bradford_Shrimp]

As usual the track of this thread has gone someway from Keith's original point...which I think was outrage at the ASLEF spokesmans point that why should they have to work on a Sunday. I knpw the thread is a little old now but I for one share Keith's dismay at this comment. It is not a matter of wages/earnings at all, or how difficult the job is compared to bus drivers, or whether they have to put up with the potential psycological consequences of witnessing suicides over which they have no control. Essentially the market will pay waht it will to attract the drivers it requires. It isn't even a matter of public or private ownership of the railways...though this is a separate issue.
The point is that the rail system provides a public service, it is there to serve the travelling public, not the interests of the drivers. The public from time to time will want to get places on a Sunday. I was amazed to discover that drivers are not rostered to work on a SUnday, and relys on volouteers. This seems to me a ridiculous state of affairs.
Nurses, as Keith points out, have to workl on a Sunday...people don't stop getting sick after all. I'm expected to work on a weekend as a veterinary surgeon. If I was to say to my employer why should I work on a Sunday, I expect that I would be shown the door pretty sharpish.
So right on Keith. At least 1 person aggrees with you.

[heysham_mfc]

did anyone who went to crewe go to the train station at half time to find out more info