The Rail Tram and Bus Union is accusing Pacific National of casualising it's Hunter workforce by stealth.
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| Pacific National Jobs On The Line |
The union has slammed the move saying the company is advertising for casual staff while cutting full time workers.
The company says the job cuts are necessary to cope with the peaks and troughs in demand for staff.
But RTBU Organiser Steve Wright says casual workers aren't experienced enough.
"Casuals are on ad hoc; they won't be driving trains every day," he said.
"Pacific National have also indicated that anyone that gets tapped on the shoulder, they'll be requested to come back as casuals.
"It's about casualisation of the workforce, I think, and it's really disappointing."
Steve Wright says it's too late for some workers to re-skill.
"There are people who are 30 to 40 years on the job that'll possibly lose their job," he said.
"They're the sort of people that are at the age where they can'y pick up another job.
"It'll be very distressing, especially around Christmas."
But for Wright, the layoffs don't come as much of a surprise.
"It's the third time in five years that we've been under the pump with redundancies from Pacific National around Christmas time," he said
