Lawyers for the combined rail unions have accused Sydney Trains of engineering a crisis on the city’s transport network to bolster its case at the Fair Work Commission.
Lawyers for the combined rail unions have accused Sydney Trains of engineering a crisis on the city’s transport network to bolster its case at the Fair Work Commission.
- Breaking
- National
- NSW
- Public transport
By Matt O’Sullivan and Michael McGowan
February 19, 2025 — 11.29am
A senior transport official says union bosses were warned five months ago that they would not receive a “one-off” $4500 bonus, which was at the heart of an eleventh-hour breakdown in negotiations between the Minns government and rail unions.
At the same time, lawyers for the combined rail unions have accused Sydney Trains of engineering a crisis on the city’s transport network in order to bolster its case that the Fair Work Commission suspend the long-running industrial action by rail workers.
Appearing before the commission, Sydney Trains executive director Fatima Abbas said union officials had been told months ago that a $4500 payment to rail workers agreed to by the former government in 2022 would not be repeated.
“My team specifically told the team from combined rail unions we would be removing that clause from the 2022 agreement,” she said.
Her evidence runs counter to claims by the combined rail unions that transport officials never raised the payment during several months of negotiations.
On Wednesday the NSW government faced off against the combined rail unions in a hearing before the full bench of the Fair Work Commission in a bid to suspend industrial action to allow a cooling off period.
The showdown in Fair Work comes after chaotic scenes on the rail network last week, following the collapse in negotiations between the two parties.
When negotiations collapsed over the $4500 payment, the unions signalled their intention to resume industrial action through so-called “go slow” action after a 48-hour pause.
In response, the government issued so-called 471-notices against workers, meaning their pay would be docked docked pay if they engaged in industrial action. It led to hundreds calling in sick or failing to report for duty.
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But on Wednesday, in an at-times testy exchange between the unions’ barrister, Oshie Fagir, and Abbas, a senior transport official who has been heavily involved in the pay negotiations, Sydney Trains was accused of manufacturing the crisis in order to force an end to the industrial action.
Fagir showed Abbas evidence he said demonstrated that Sydney Trains’ own analysis of the impact of the go-slow action would have been “moderate”, and suggested that the decision to issue the 471 notices was “an industrial tactic”.
Abbas, who denied the claim, was also shown evidence the number of workers who had called in sick last week had in fact been similar to previous years.
Asked about the impact of the recent industrial action, Abbas conceded she could not identify specific instances of crews driving 23km/h below the speed limit as part of a “go-slow” action.
She also disputed suggestions by the union’s lawyer that the decision to issue 471 notices came from the premier’s office.
Abbas said the parties were not close to reaching an agreement when the $4500 bonus reared its head last Thursday.
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However, Rail Tram and Bus Union state secretary Toby Warnes said they came within a whisker of rewatching an agreement, and “we were 1 per cent apart on year three”.
Warnes said they offered trading the $4500 bonus for a 1 per cent uplift in year three of a new enterprise agreement.
The government and six rail unions have been engaged in a bitter dispute over a new enterprise agreement for the last nine months.
Following chaos on Sydney’s rail network late last week, the government filed an application under Section 425 of the Fair Work Act to suspend industrial action on public interest grounds so as to allow negotiations to continue on a new enterprise agreement unhindered by work bans and other actions.
On Tuesday, Premier Chris Minns said part of the government’s case for a suspension of industrial action would rest on the uncertainty hanging over the rail network caused by the disruptions from work bans and other actions.
Asked whether the federal government would intervene in the dispute, federal Workplace Minister Murray Watt said the power for him to do so was an “extraordinary one” and had never been used by any minister on either side of politics.
“What I have been focused on is trying to convince both sides to resolve this,” he said on Channel 7’s Sunrise program on Wednesday morning before the hearing started. “I absolutely understand the frustration of commuters.”
Walking into the hearing, Warnes said it would be an “absolutely catastrophic outcome” if the federal government intervened in the dispute. “The anger out there on the ground at the moment is palpable. I would imagine it would only increase that anger,” he said.
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Matt O’Sullivan is transport and infrastructure editor at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via Twitter.
Michael McGowan is a state political reporter for The Sydney Morning HeraldConnect via email.
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