SMRT to hire 1,200 staff, raise salaries for bus captains

SMRT Corp plans to hire an additional 1,200 staff for its rail and bus businesses and raise the salaries of its bus captains, the land transport company said on Thursday.

SMRT said it plans to increase the headcount this year for its train division by about 15 per cent or 700 staff and for its bus division by 20 per cent or about 500 staff. The company currently employs more than 9,000 staff.

The hiring for the rail staff is in anticipation of new trains on the North-South, East-West and Circle lines, and four new MRT stations on the East-West line extension to Tuas. For buses, SMRT is putting more vehicles on the roads to reduce waiting time.

SMRT also announced a number of initiatives to raise the productivity of its staff.

The company said it will adjust basic salaries for bus captains upwards to be at least on a par with the market, and grant long-serving bus captains an extra two to three days of annual leave.

Staff who successfully refer new hires and the new hires they recommended will also stand to receive up to S$3,000 each. Joining bonuses have also been enhanced so that bus captains, rail supervisors and engineers could receive up to S$3,000 if they sign on. SMRT said it has recruited 388 staff since the joining bonus and referral scheme was introduced in December 2015.

Train and bus staff will receive "team-based" reliability incentives that are linked to performance indicators that measure the reliability of services.

Staff at the Automotive Engineering Services Centre will also have a new career scheme, while ground and frontline train engineering maintenance leaders will have better career advancement prospects and training.

SMRT Institute will also jointly conduct courses with a British centre for training railway engineering and operations.