BRINGING in private contractors to clean buses and cutting levels of guaranteed overtime will reduce costs by a quarter. MHKs were told.
iomtoday revealed two weeks ago that a Bus Vannin cleaner had been earning an astonishing £52,000 including overtime.
Their pay rate was revealed as the Manx government plans to streamline services and bring half of its workforce under a single employing authority.
Bus cleaners and fitters earn a basic salary of £25,031 but each has the right to a day’s overtime a week.
With the reduction in the size of the bus fleet, the number of cleaners had been reduced from six to four – but they were working long hours to cover duties still rostered for six, we reported.
In the House of Keys Middle MHK Howard Quayle asked how long the current overtime payments to bus cleaners had been in force, whether it had been cost effective to reduce the number of bus cleaners from six to four and what plans there were to change this arrangement.
Community, Culture and Leisure Minister Graham Cregeen, in his written reply, said: ‘The current working agreement dates back to September 2004 and we believe the previous one was not dissimilar.
‘Since the bus network review the number of buses in the fleet has fallen from 89 to 71 and as such the amount of work to be undertaken has fallen pro rata. This allowed the establishment to be reduced from six to four which is quite separate to the overtime issue.
‘Like many areas of government the working agreements reflect the practices agreed with Whitley Council in terms of premium days and overtime.’
Mr Cregeen said that throughout the Public Transport division much effort had been put into successfully modernising these working agreements.
Negotiations have been going on with the cleaners’ representatives for some time, he said.
Mr Cregeen added: ‘A revised agreement will come into effect in April 2013 that will address the issue of the excess level of guaranteed overtime.
‘At the same time interior cleaning for deep cleans will be undertaken by outside contractors. The overall savings will be around 25 per cent of the previous cost.’
The minister was also questioned about overtime rates for bus service managers.
In a written reply to the question from Peter Karran (Lib Van, Onchan), Mr Cregeen said supervisors are contractually entitled to overtime for additional hours.
‘Senior staff are not entitled without prior authorisation to overtime and are expected to work flexibly to avoid incurring overtime costs,’ he added.