Skip to content
Employment Relations, Transport Automotive

An open letter to the directors of Torrens Connect

RTBU 3 mins read

Friday 1 September 2023

The following letter has been written by an Adelaide tram driver and sent to the directors of Torrens Connect.

This is something quite out of my comfort zone, but something I feel needs to be addressed.

I have been employed by Torrens Connect as a tram driver for nearly three years.  I hold qualifications as a tradesman, have a Certificate 3 in management and ran a small business employing 30 people for ten years. My tram driving life started during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, so I was one of the many with a new career due to impact of the COVID restrictions.  Working in the transport industry is something I would have never imagined myself doing before COVID struck.

My time at Torrens Connect has been an eye opener in many ways. Initially I found a diverse group of 90 or so drivers from different background, education levels and cultures, who respected each other and the company they worked for. Over the past two years, however, there has been a swing both in the culture of the company and the morale among drivers. I think it’s true to say drivers feel that they are treated as a liability to the company, not an asset.  The frustration with how drivers are treated is evident in the number of drivers who have been involved in the recent industrial actions.

Drivers, as a whole, are fed up being told they earn good money for what they do - because it is simply not true. Our base wage of around $65,000 a year is just an average wage. Drivers are able to earn more, but only because of the sacrifices they make – such as working on a rotating roster, working on weekends, split days off, working on public holidays, late nights, early mornings, foregoing family time, missing important events and kids sport, and not being able to commit to anything on a regular basis.

The idea (being promoted by some) that drivers are a militant unionised bunch is plainly ridiculous. The reality is that most of us have never been in a union before – let alone involved in any sort of industrial action. But union membership within the workforce gradually increased as our conditions got worse and as morale dropped.

We want what everyone in the modern workforce is aspiring to: a decent work-life balance, with a chance of some sort or regularity, and fair pay that keeps pace with the rising cost of living. If your business is serious about its people and culture, this needs to be addressed.  Working 11- or 12-day fortnights to make ends meet should be a thing of the past, not a necessity.

Management refers to demands on drivers as a ‘lifestyle roster’, or being ‘flexible'.  Perhaps it used to be that way – when drivers could swap shifts or give shifts away – but over the past two years there have been barely enough drivers to do the rostered work.  This actually means zero flexibility, more work and effectively less pay (given the ever-growing cost of living).

When I was in business our ethos was to listen, evolve and improve. This is something I would like to see embraced at AMO / Torrens Connect.  You have a great workforce with a good work ethic, a passion for the role they play in the community, with incredible operational knowledge – they should be listened to, not ignored.

Finally, these are not just the random thoughts of one isolated driver.  I know that my concerns and my aspirations for this business are shared by my fellow workers.

Yours sincerely,
An Adelaide tram driver


Contact details:

Darren Phillips 0407 414 527 / darren@rtbusant.org.au

More from this category

  • Education Training, Employment Relations
  • 04/11/2024
  • 08:16
Australian Higher Education Industrial Association

Government praised for fixed-term contract approach

The peak body for industrial relations in the higher education sector has outlined three broad components for making universities sustainable. The Executive Director of the Australian Higher Education Industrial Association (AHEIA), Craig Laughton, said there needed to be: better informed decision making by governments legislating in areas that effect the sector; less pursuit of ideology in enterprise bargaining; and harmonising funding with modes of employment. “This is in the context of at least 25 of Australia’s universities in deficit in 2023, compared with just seven in 2017,” Mr Laughton said. He said that’s why a just announced decision of the…

  • Employment Relations, Union
  • 04/11/2024
  • 06:35
Australian Services Union

Employers push for nightmare pay, conditions for sleepover care staff

Employers are attempting to make it lawful for community and disability support workers to be at work for up to 28 hours without overtime pay - a move the Australian Services Union has condemned as reckless, arrogant and unjust. The Fair Work Commission will this week (Nov 4-6) hear a case brought by Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), which seeks to make sleepovers at workplaces classified as ‘breaks’ between shifts, rather than as part of a continuous shift with the ordinary hours worked before and/or after. A sleepover is when a worker sleeps at the same location as their client…

  • Community, Transport Automotive
  • 01/11/2024
  • 13:24
City of Sydney

More room to move and trade along Castlereagh Street

Businesses and people walking and riding are among those set to reap the benefits of a renewed Castlereagh Street after the City of Sydney’s…

  • Contains:

Media Outreach made fast, easy, simple.

Feature your press release on Medianet's News Hub every time you distribute with Medianet. Pay per release or save with a subscription.