An investigative report by Channel 10's Makor has exposed training and safety flaws at Israel Railways. The program compared the training of Israel Railways employees to the training of British Rail employees and at the maintenance depots of Canada's Bombardier Inc. (TSX: BBD), which is due to take over the maintenance of Israel Railways' new rolling stock. This outsourcing is the core of the labor dispute at the government company.
"My knowledge is negligible," admitted a Railways employee at the Haifa maintenance depot. I've told both the VP and CEO that if there is a breakdown, I don’t know how to fix it. They said that this was being dealt with, and that everything would be all right."
Another employee said, "There's a lathe, purchased for millions of shekels, which is turned off at 3:15, instead of working. This pains me."
At the Lod depot, Makor filmed untrained employees carrying out critical tests with a flashlight and cigarette in hand - and without quality control. At the same time, high-tech maintenance employees are seen with state-of-the-art equipment and special suits.
Makor found that manuals and procedures provided to maintenance employees that were not properly translated. An employee said, "This is a manual that was translated by Google. They have something that copies a text and translates it for you from English to Hebrew. It's not an exact translation, but we generally understand it."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 21, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012