RECRUITMENT of 50 staff for the island’s buses, railways and leisure centres has been defended.
The issue was raised in the House of Keys by Bill Henderson (Douglas North) who asked why the Department of Community Culture and Leisure had advertised so many vacancies since five staff were made redundant from the railways last year.
Community Culture and Leisure Minister Tim Crookall confirmed a total of 50 posts across his department had been recruited in the last 12 months, many on a seasonal basis but said in order to maintain services and operate safely there really was ‘no other choice’.
Mr Crookall said: ‘We simply cannot stop those services when staff move on. We need minimum manning levels to ensure a number of cases, such as the NSC pool [where there has been] a recent recruitment for seasonal leisure attendants.
‘At any one time we employ about 1,000 different people. We review all posts when they become vacant to see if a saving can be made, but often have no choice but to recruit for safety reasons.’
He said two seasonal permanent way vacancies for the railways were advertised in a campaign that closed at the end of May. The first vacancy arose as a result of resignation and the second was to provide cover for an employee who is on long-term sick leave, he explained.
‘The decision to employ on a seasonal basis has been made on the basis that the individual will hopefully make an eventual recovery. Until we are clear about next year’s budget provision, flexibility is prudent,’ he said.
A craftsman role on the Manx Electric Railway became vacant when the workshop chargehand was promoted and this post has been advertised as a limited-term appointment, the Minister said. Part-time and casual bus drivers are also being recruited following the recent filling of vacancies for full-time staff by staff employed on 20-hour or casual contracts.
He stressed that these that these recruitment campaigns had been run to fill existing posts that had become vacant and he was pleased to find that in most cases all the posts have been offered to existing staff on promotion.