NSW Government Offers Sydney Trains Employees 15% Pay Rise Amidst Industrial Dispute
The NSW government has offered Sydney Trains employees a 13% pay rise over four years in an attempt to resolve the ongoing industrial dispute with the state’s rail union. The offer also includes a 1% rise in superannuation contributions and an additional 1% rise through savings.
Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the pay offer was made possible due to an agreement to merge Sydney and NSW Trains over the next four years, leading to productivity gains. However, the RTBU NSW branch secretary, Toby Warnes, stated that the union had not received a draft enterprise agreement detailing the offer.
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations, Damien Tudehope, criticised the offer, claiming it would lead to job losses in regional areas. He also expressed doubts about the offer’s ability to stop the planned industrial action.
Despite the offer, Transport for NSW has warned passengers to expect “increasing service reductions and cancellations from Wednesday due to over 350 ongoing and new industrial bans.”
The industrial action is expected to affect several train lines, including the T1 Western Line, T8 Airport and South Line, Central Coast and Newcastle Line, T2 Leppington and Inner West, T4 Illawarra and Eastern Suburbs, T9 Northern Line, and the Blue Mountains Line.
What they said-Key Quotes
Rail Tram and Bus Union NSW Secretary Toby Warnes
RTBU NSW branch secretary Toby Warnes said:
“We have heard the government is putting the agreement to a vote. We’re not sure how the government plans to do that. We still don’t have a draft document in which our members could consider,” Mr Warnes said.
Shadow Minister for Industrial Relations Damien Tudehope said:
“This is an offer which is saying to regional NSW, we are going to get rid of NSW Trains and the jobs which are going to be sacrificed in relation to that will be regional jobs,” Mr Tudehope said.
“It goes to show that this is a government that is focused on Sydney, Newcastle and Wollongong, and if you live in any other area in NSW then this government does not know that you exist.”
NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen
“This is an agreed outcome of the mutual gains bargaining process that over the course of the agreement – so, some three to four years – that the rail entities Sydney Trains and NSW Trains would be merged, and there would be productivity gains as a result of that,” Ms Haylen said.
“Those processes need to be worked through, but this is an agreed position, something that the unions support, that the workforce is open to. But, of course, it will take time to work through.”
In relation to the bargaining process Ms Haylen said there was “give and take, and you don’t get something for nothing”.
“This offer is contingent upon a range of amendments to the agreement that allow us to modernise our network and to increase productivity, to make our system more efficient, including things like improvements to technology,” she said.
Sydney Trains chief executive Matt Longland:
“What we’re talking about here are partial work bans, so staff that do part of their job, but not the other part … Our approach is that we will no longer accept partial work from our staff.
“For staff that are coming to work, we expect them to undertake their normal duties, or they won’t be coming to work and they won’t be paid.”
