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More than 100 Hunter women and some from further afield, attended an information session in Muswellbrook today (Sunday 27 September) to find out more about working on track for ARTC.
ARTC is exclusively hiring women to fill up to ten roles in its Hunter Valley business unit, with Infrastructure Maintainer and Signalling Maintainer positions available in Muswellbrook, Maitland, Scone and Newcastle (Port Waratah).
ARTC recently received an exemption from the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW to specifically hire women for track maintenance roles across the Hunter Valley.
“We were really pleased with the turnout and the calibre of the women that attended the information session to find out more about ARTC and the roles, was outstanding,” ARTC’s Executive General Manager Hunter Valley, Jonathan Vandervoort said.
More than 400 applications have been received for the roles in only the first week of the recruitment campaign being advertised.
“To put this into perspective, early last year we had a recruitment campaign for Infrastructure Maintainers and while the wording of the advertisements clearly encouraged women to apply for the roles – we only had 3 female applicants,” Mr Vandervoort said.
“This is a great turnaround and reinforces the approach we are taking with this campaign.”
ARTC successfully obtained an exemption under section 126 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW) to designate and recruit for the female field worker positions.
“Given the quality, interest and number of the enquiries, the challenge for us is now to go through the great applications we have had and select the successful applicants,” Mr Vandervoort said.
“We really have been fortunate with the level and quality of responses received and the number of women interested in building a career with ARTC.
“We are also encouraging women to get their application in as soon as possible as we may need to close off the application process earlier than expected given the high level of interest.”
ARTC’s workforce currently comprises only 18 per cent women. In the Hunter Valley, that number is 12 per cent and out on track, that number is far fewer.
The Anti-Discrimination Act exemption remains in force for a period of two years from 6 July 2015.
The recruitment campaign coincides with national Rail Careers Week (21-27 September).