Rail Staff Incentive Offers

The Hon. J.A. DARLEY (15:54): My question is to the Treasurer, representing the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, regarding rail staff offers. Can the minister advise what redeployment opportunities will be offered to the train drivers who did not accept an offer of employment with private provider Keolis Downer? Can the minister also advise whether targeted separation packages will be offered to staff and, if so, can the minister provide broad details of such offers?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:54): I am happy to respond; I can provide some detail in relation to that. Voluntary separation packages will be made available in certain circumstances, and the broad provisions of those are the same as they have been for a number of years. I think the details of those are publicly available on the Treasury website, I suspect, but I am happy to provide detail of the usual offers in relation to targeted separation packages. Generally, they relate to years of service, with a capped maximum amount, if someone is deemed to be eligible, that is, their job has disappeared.

In relation to job offers, the redeployment policy we inherited from the former government requires that—and I think the phrase is—a suitable job offer be made available to someone who needs to be redeployed, that is, their position has disappeared. The government is required and will comply with the terms of that particular policy and that is that suitable job offers will need to be made available to employees.

They will obviously vary, depending on the skill sets the individuals might have, or whether or not they are prepared or interested enough to retrain for potentially something else that they might not currently be suited to but with some retraining might become capable of performing that particular task. They are the broad parameters. I am happy to take on notice and provide any further detail to the member that I am able to obtain.