Barely three months afters its privatization, QR National announced on Wednesday that an estimated 3000 workers would be given options for voluntary redundancies, which the company said would be initiated in April.

The newly-privatised railway firm, however, clarified that the offer would not be forced on the more than 30 percent of its present workforce number of 9000, who are set to be affected by the redundancy packages.

Despite such assurance issued by the firm, Queensland opposition leader John Paul Langbroek criticise the apparent backpedalling of the state government as he pointed to previous pronouncements that "Queensland Rail jobs were going to be guaranteed for three years."

Langbroek stressed that with this new twist, it appears that "they lied about the selling of assets and they lied when they said workers' jobs would be safe."

Yet the new development, according to Queensland Treasurer Andrew Fraser, was a welcome one considering that QR National has assured that no employees would be forced to get out and instead given the offer of voluntary redundancy.

Fraser stressed that with context of the announcement, "no-one's being sacked, no-one's being retrenched, but some people are being offered the opportunity to retire with generous packages," adding that he would not prevent any workers from availing themselves of retiring early and in the process get a hefty payout check.

On the part of the workers' union in QR National, the Rail, Bus and Tram Union (RTBU) said that they will continue monitoring the workload of their members once the redundancy packages have been availed of by employees.

RTBU spokesman Les Moffitt told ABC that "we'll be monitoring staffing levels to make sure that the people who are left behind are not required to carry extra work and that above what their capacity is."