Sydney commuters face more pain this week following Friday’s transport debacle after the NSW Labor government lost a legal challenge.
Sydney commuters face more pain this week following Friday’s transport debacle after the NSW Labor government lost a legal challenge.
By Michael McGowan
Updated February 16, 2025 — 8.44pmfirst published at 10.47am
A rail union boss has said delays on Sydney trains on Monday could surpass the chaos seen at the end of last week as uncertainty reigns over whether train drivers will show up to work amid a worsening pay dispute with the government.
After Sydney Trains chief executive officer Matt Longland admitted to “uncertainty” over how the network would cope on Monday, his counterpart in the increasingly ugly dispute offered a rare piece of bipartisanship by agreeing no one was quite sure how Monday would unfold.
“Tomorrow may well be fine, but tomorrow may well be worse than Friday,” said Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary Toby Warnes.
At the heart of that uncertainty is the question of how many train drivers and guards will stay home, either by calling in sick or by not showing up, after the government threatened to dock the pay of any worker who engaged in industrial action. That stance led to hundreds of rail workers staying home on Friday, prompting a meltdown on the rail network.
Those absences continued over the weekend. Some 500 services had been delayed or cancelled on Saturday and about 260 train crew operators had not reported for work by about midday on Sunday.
Messages circulating among rail workers on Sunday gave conflicting instructions. One urged guards not to accept a day’s work on Monday, warning it would undercut the sacrifice of others (Warnes said this had not come from the union).
Another directed staff to go to work and operate as normal, saying unpredictability was the best negotiating strategy. The Herald was unable to confirm the source of either message.
The uncertainty followed a combined rail unions victory in the Fair Work Commission on Sunday in a case in which the government had argued the hundreds of drivers and guards who had not shown up last week had engaged in unprotected industrial action by calling in sick en masse.
Lawyers for the Minns government said such action amounted to a co-ordinated campaign by the union. They said there had been a 40 per cent increase in the number of staff calling in sick on Friday compared with the previous week.
Advertisement
To argue their case, the government had pointed to a highly publicised message sent by one RTBU delegate which told train drivers to “f— the network up”.
But a judgment on Sunday found in favour of the unions, saying union officials had “left the decision about whether to attend, to attend … or to not attend at all, to the employees themselves”.
Deputy FWC president Thomas Roberts found the message made no mention of sick leave, and that, aside from the fact it “found its way to the media”, was not evidence of union co-ordination.
Warnes on Sunday said the union had not advised workers to call in sick or avoid coming to work, but he said he feared many would due to concerns they would have their pay docked even if they weren’t engaged in industrial action. That fear, he said, was exacerbated by examples from workers who had shown up on Friday. In one case, he said, a driver worked an 11-hour shift before being told he would not be paid.
But Transport secretary Josh Murray said “no actions have been taken against any employees for slow running”.
“We’ve checked with supervisors across all depots and we’ve got absolutely no evidence of any such pay conversations,” he said.
“Every Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink employee who turns up to work and undertakes their normal duties will be paid, no exceptions.”
The two parties had been due to meet for a conciliation meeting on Monday. That is unlikely to go ahead. The government’s hopes of ending the dispute rest on a hearing before the full bench of the commission slated for Wednesday.
Loading
Meanwhile, the government says it will continue to impose so-called section 471 notices on workers if they engage in industrial action, meaning they could have their pay docked.
Longland on Sunday said the transport agencies had offered to drop the 471 notices if the union withdrew its industrial action, but that the union had so far refused. Warnes said the offer had come only via the media.
The latest imbroglio followed a dramatic collapse in the nine-month negotiations between the combined rail unions and the Minns government.
After a deal between the two parties seemed imminent, negotiations broke down on Thursday over a “one-off” $4500 bonus agreed to by the former Coalition government in 2022. The union said it expected the payment to roll over into the new deal.
Evidence presented to the commission over the weekend shows it was not part of the list of items the union had told members was included in its pay package, but the union said it did not need to raise the payment because it was an existing benefit.
Transport Minister John Graham said the government would not bend to the demand.
“If we did, there would be another demand,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Michael McGowan is a state political reporter for The Sydney Morning HeraldConnect via email.
Loading
Discover more from World Byte News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
