They only ever talk about benchmarking when it's in their favour as well, that is what always amused me and the only reason they are calling for it is for this reason. They will want all the things that they feel they don't have the best of benchmarks, but without benchmarking anything that is better.
If there was to be overall benchmarking over the whole CIE group, those in the other two companies in the group would be very unhappy and say how unfair it is and how it will negatively impact their terms and condition and ability to earn a living and an appropriate standard of life.
It's all smoke and mirrors as usual, anyone who is paid less than them in the same industry is underpaid, anyone who is paid a higher rate in the same industry has the correct pay and anyone who is not in an operational customer facing role is vastly overpaid.
No doubt if any mention of tendering services is mentioned drivers will plough the usual line about the service needing to stay public else greedy fat cat shareholders will attempt to try and profit from it at the expense of the service and public services should be run for the benefit of the public and not private interest, whilst the very same people continue to put their own private interests ahead of the same public. Talk about ironic.
The fact that the first thing that happens when a big increase in DART frequency is proposed is the staff basically say it's not going to happen unless they get their own way speaks volumes about who the company is truly run for.
No doubt that old chestnut "Safety" will be brought up in the discussions in some way if they need to drum up a bit of support.
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