Fri 27 March 2020

FRI 27 MARCH 2020 Good afternoon, I want to take the opportunity to provide an update on our response to COVID-19, explain the working from home plan the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) has endorsed and outline changes to our Regional service reductions that will apply from Monday 30 March. Firstly, I want to thank all of you for staying focused over the past few weeks in what has been an incredibly challenging time. Your dedication, energy and ability to deliver is exceptional and I genuinely appreciate your efforts. Secondly, I want to reiterate that the wellbeing of you and your family is the most important priority and our ELT is working around the clock to ensure you remain healthy and safe and feel supported. School and childcare changes The State Government announced yesterday that Queensland state schools would be student-free from Monday 30 March, but would remain open for children of essential workers – which includes rail employees. With school holidays commencing on Monday 6 April, we acknowledge that people may have existing approved annual or long service leave for this period. We will continue to monitor the school and childcare situation for term two. Working from home From Monday 30 March, it is possible for you to work from home, with the approval of your leader. Your leaders will talk to you today about your individual circumstances and arrangements. This doesn’t mean all office-based employees – we need to maintain a team presence in all of our work locations. Obviously, there are parts of our business that keep running regardless – because public transport is an essential service, that includes traincrew, train control, station staff, onboard employees and maintenance and signalling teams – just to name a few. With such a large, diverse and geographically dispersed workforce, and with many different types of roles and requirements, every area of our workforce will have different arrangements for each team. Where it is not practical for individuals or teams to work from home full time, it may be necessary for some leaders to employ a variety of rotational arrangements with some time in the office and the remainder of the time at home. IT considerations Like many organisations, we are not equipped to have everybody that could work from home access our IT network remotely at the same time. Based on this, your leaders have undertaken an assessment of key requirements and the criticality of your role and specific tasks. This has enabled us to determine the levels of access and associated device requirements appropriate for each employee – whether you are working at a Queensland Rail site, or at home. This is a significant piece of work and has taken some time. As a result of this assessment, you may not have your usual level of access to our network when you are working remotely because we have focused on what is critical to continuing operations. This is a time where we will all have to adapt very quickly to new ways of working. Your leaders will have a conversation with you about whether you are able to work from home, the options available to you if you cannot, and the additional measures and precautions being put in place for those groups who remain working from their usual locations. In parallel and as a priority – we are working with our IT service provider to increase capacity. In the event that you do work from home, you must also consider your work from home environment. Use the checklists and guides available on the COVID-19 Hub page and take some time to ensure you have the right equipment and set up to facilitate safe working from home. You are also still expected to regularly communicate with your leader and continue on assigned activities. Regional service changes As I’ve said previously, we’ve seen a significant reduction in patronage over the last few weeks, particularly for our Regional services. We’ve already had to alter our long-distance services as a result of COVID-19 related travel restrictions, including a 14-day self-isolation period for people returning from overseas or interstate. Now with the requirement for people to only travel when essential, long-distance train services for Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Cairns will be reduced by approximately 50% from 30 March. The Inlander, The Westlander and Spirit of the Outback services will be suspended from the same date. Customers needing to travel in these western regions will be accommodated through existing TransLink arranged coaches. Our Kuranda Scenic Rail and Gulflander Tourist Services have already stopped operating. Leaders will be talking to employees in those areas about ongoing work arrangements. I want to thank our Travel & Tourism team members and Regional employees for your dedication and commitment to providing an excellent service for our customers. I appreciate it’s a challenging time and you are doing an exceptional job. Ensuring the health and safety of our teams For all team members who will continue to work from their current location, I want to reiterate that our workplaces are safe, and we have implemented a range of new measures to ensure you remain healthy. This includes additional cleaning at our stations, on our trains and in meal rooms, depots and work sites, and an increased focus on hygiene, including the provision of extra cleaning products for our teams. We’ve also implemented specific measures across our operations to apply social distancing, including enforcing a limit of two people per vehicle or train cab and maintaining separation of teams when on site – to name a few. We will continue to take the advice of health experts and implement any additional and necessary precautions to ensure you remain safe and healthy. The COVID-19 Hub page is updated daily with many helpful resources to support you to work remotely. We have also sent these directly to all Level 4 leaders and above. We will continue to use email, The Hub and Skype to communicate with our teams. All of these can be accessed remotely from personal devices not connected to the Queensland Rail IT network. Remember, we all play a role in stopping the spread of the virus – we are all responsible. Working from home means staying home, working productively, taking direction from your leaders and staying connected with your teams. We know people are feeling anxious and worried about the COVID-19 pandemic. We are all impacted by this, with some more so than others. Please remember to stay connected to your teammates and contact our Employee Assistance Provider (EAP) - Benestar - on 1300 360 364 for assistance and support. Please continue to stay safe and look out for one another. Nick Easy Chief Executive Officer Queensland Rail .

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