There has long been an issue with Control Room Assistants (CRAs) being used to do Station Supervisors' work on the cheap. With the new, 35-hour-week rosters, that issue has risen up again.
In some stations - notably on the JLE - CRAs practically run the station. Supervisors posts have been thinned out, so often the SS has so much to do around the station that anything done from the control room is left to the CRA.
Run the evacuation of the station? Book on contractors? If needs must, CRAs end up doing it.
The unions need to urgently demand an honest accounting from the company of what work CRAs are actually doing. Then, to rectify the situation, we need to see some Supervisor jobs restored (with CRAs getting a chance at promotion; or a hefty pay rise for CRAs. Or, preferably, both.
