VALEMURPH VALEMURPH REMEMBERINGJEFFREYMURPHY

27 Nov 1947 - 30 Sept 2022

We regret to advise of the passing of Honorary Member Jeffrey Murphy Those who knew Jeffrey will remember that he always had the best interests of his fellow workers at heart. Jeffrey Murphy commenced his Electrical Apprenticeship at North Ipswich Railway Workshops in January 1963 and qualified as Electrical Fitter/ Mechanic in early 1968

He resigned from Queensland Rail not long after and moved to Western Australia to work in the mining industry and returned to Ipswich from Western Australia in 1974 after his father was tragically killed in the Box Flat mine explosion in 1972 He then regained employment at North Ipswich Railway Workshops after a short stint of employment with Ipswich electrical contractor, RT Edwards He transferred to Redbank Railway Workshops shortly after where he became active in the ETU on-site before being elected as Shop Steward.

His skills and abilities as a Union leader and negotiator were further recognised when he was elected as President of the Redbank Workshops Combined Unions Committee

He stood down from the ETU Shop Steward position in 1983 but remained active as the Deputy Shop Steward and also President of the Combined Unions for several more years

Up until the early 1990’s the operations of the Queensland Government Railways and its employees was governed by the Railways Act Under this Act all employees’ performance was covered by By-Laws, including a disciplinary process which required that employees be subject to legalistic type charges for breaching these By-Laws They were then required to either plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. If they were deemed by Management to be guilty of the charge and either fined, suspended or dismissed, they were then entitled to lodge an appeal to an Appeal Court which consisted of a Stipendiary Magistrate, a representative of the Commissioner and an employees’ representative Employees were also able to access this court if they were unsuccessful in being appointed to higher grade positions Jeffrey once again stepped up to represent his fellow workers and was appointed as one of the employee representatives on the Board which required him to undertake a considerable amount of training and responsibility and travel to various Rail Centres around the State