Some workers made redundant earlier this year at KiwiRail's Hillside Engineering workshops may be rehired on short-term contracts following talks yesterday between management and the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU).
Workplace relations at the workshops have soured recently, with workers recently passing a vote of no confidence in management after 44 redundancies four months ago reduced the workforce to 110 and contractors were hired to replace them as work subsequently increased.
RMTU Southern organiser John Kerr and other officials met KiwiRail chief executive Jim Quinn and management and afterwards said the discussions were "reasonably positive".
"Jim hasn't been across some of the detail of the things that have been going on here."
Mr Kerr was optimistic Mr Quinn would direct management at the site to reduce their use of contractors in favour of workers on fixed-term agreements - potentially including some of those made redundant earlier this year - as work and projects demanded.
"That's quite legitimate. They come under the collective agreement. They are on the same wage rates as everybody else.
"They're part of the workforce.
The difficulty we have with contractors is they come in often at lower wage rates and they're not as skilled. The lads have to coach them and tell them what to do."
Mr Quinn said he had told the RMTU the workshops would use the best resources available "for some of the spikes of work we've got".
"We had a really constructive discussion today and we'll work those opportunities through as the work comes and goes."
Mr Quinn confirmed workers laid off would be considered for rehire on short-term contracts as the work demanded.
'We'll go for where the skills are. If there's work to do ... we'll put the right work answers in place as we need to."
