Newsletter 6 - Rail Industry Worker

The Rail Industry Worker Program has specific processes around employing and releasing workers in the system. We thought a timely refresher might be helpful for RIW employer administrators, so let’s clarify some of the key points…

What are the employment relationships of workers in the RIW system?

A worker can have one primary employer and up to two secondary employers in the RIW system. The primary employer is the worker’s direct employer (the primary employer has full edit rights to the worker’s profile). The secondary employer supports transient workers who may work for other employers (a secondary employer has read-only access to the worker’s profile).

Meanwhile, associated companies have advance visibility of a worker before they arrive on site. This is typically used to ensure a worker is compliant with the employer’s work requirements ahead of time. The Contractor in Charge of a project has automatic linkage to a worker’s profile once the worker is swiped onto a site under that project. The Contractor in Charge has read-only visibility of the worker’s profile. To pre-arrange an association with a worker, check out the Quick Guide – How to associate with a worker.

Adding or ending employment with a worker

When you add a new worker to your company, there are two methods which can be used, depending on whether the worker is new to rail or an existing RIW cardholder. Refer to the Quick Guide – New worker creation, or the video on how to add a new worker for instructions on both scenarios.

When you create a new worker, or employ an existing worker, a request will be sent to the worker for them to accept the employment request. To do so, the worker must create a myRIW profile and accept the request before you can bring the worker into your company.

To end employment with a worker, the administrator can insert an ‘end date’ into the worker’s employment profile. Follow the instructions in the Quick Guide – How to end employment with a worker.

How a worker can end primary employment with another company

If a worker you are wanting to employ has another primary employer listed against their profile, there are two ways to resolve this issue:

The worker can contact the previous primary employer and request that they end their employment in the RIW system.
The worker can submit an Ending Primary Employment Service Request to the RIW Service Team.

Note that in both cases, once employment is ceased with a particular company, the change will not take effect until midnight. The new primary employer can then ‘employ’ the worker in the RIW system the next day.