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Negotiations with Sydney / NSW Trains
Negotiations with Sydney/NSW Trains Have Been Progressing – with some wins for Members
Throughout bargaining so far, one of our front and centre demands has been that Sydney Trains and NSW Trains bargain together, with our combined delegates, for one agreement.
In October, the Combined Rail Union received correspondence from the Secretary of Transport for NSW (Transport) saying that Sydney Trains and NSW Trains will commit to bargaining jointly on issues that are considered to be common to both agencies. On this basis, Transport sought that the union suspend its industrial action planned for the next fortnight. However, the offer put by Transport was not good enough for delegates to consider calling off the planned action. The full EA delegate committee met over the weekend to develop a counter-offer which could deliver the first win of this campaign after 6 weeks of intense and effective industrial action. At 4pm the same afternoon, Transport folded and agreed in writing to our proposal. There are some significant wins in this back down by Transport, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains. The insulting 0.3% wage proposal is now off the table, and all bargaining parties and decision makers will be at each and every meetingof the intensive bargaining period. As a result the 2 week networkwide ban on overtime and foreign depot working, Monday 26 October 1 hour strikes, and Tuesdays 27 October ban on “detailed walks” for infrastructure members were postponed.
The following actions continued:
• Members wearing union gear
to work • Members can engage with the media and the public about the bargaining campaign • Adding campaign material to outgoing correspondence • Public announcements by any means • Attaching union materials to railway assets • Indefinite ban on working with the NIF
On 27 October, combined delegates met face to face with Sydney Trains, NSW Trains, and Transport for NSW. This included the Chief Executives of Sydney Trains and NSW Trains and Senior TfNSW officials. There was a strong sense of solidarity amongst our delegates, who were backed by close to 9000 RTBU members that have taken industrial action over the past 2 months to bring the employers to the table to talk seriously about our conditions of employment. At the table, we rehashed the claims that have been put over the past 5 months of bargaining on MS Teams. It was important that the senior managers of the employers were able to hear your claims in person, from the mouths of your delegates.
The claims we put to senior management were:
1. One Agreement for Sydney
Trains and NSW Trains 2. Maintain or improve on current conditions 3. Health and safety claims 4. Leave matters 5. Job security claims 6. Claims for the deed 7. Flexible work claims
Importantly, we also got to speak to the following claims:
1. Incorporating all employment arrangements into the EA to protect them into the future. 2. Making the disciplinary processes fairer The following days of intensive bargaining were where each Division of the Union put their specific EA claims to the rail entities.
The claims we put forward included:
1. The need for a wholesale review of disciplinary processes utilised by the rail entities. 2. Our claim to improve the disputes resolution procedure. 3. Claims for Section 2 of the
Agreement covering Salaried
Employees. 4. Claims for Section 3 of the
Agreement covering Fleet
Maintenance Wages Grades. 5. Claims for Section 4 of the
Agreement covering Station
Staff, Drivers, Guards, On-
Boarders, Area Controllers, LICs
Operators, and Signallers.
From the outset EA bargaining delegates made dramatic progress in the process demonstrating the importance of the earlier industrial action. Having senior decision makers at the table and having Sydney and NSW Trains in the same room will allow all delegates to present a united front and make serious ground on our log of claims. As the negotiations progressed with Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, we put the remainder of our claims to management.
These were:
1. Section 5 specific claims 2. Proposed additions to clause 12 (Facilitation of Changes Clause), including the ability of Area
Controllers to negotiate more pay for additional duties, and Salaried members to negotiate conditions of employment when they work from home.
3. Our pay claim – 3.5% per year with an additional 1% rise in employer super contributions above the 10% statutory amount. 4. A bonus for each occasion members work through disaster or crisis conditions, such as bushfires or pandemics. 5. Defensive claims against any move to privatise rail assets. 6. A claim to ensure that any employee who is put off work on the employers initiative (i.e. disciplinary or fitness for duty related reasons) to be paid at their average pay measured over the 6 months prior. Once your delegates finalised the presentation of the log of claims, the employers put their proposed changes to the enterprise agreement forward. Far from being constructive, many of their claims are attempting to either reduce conditions now or allow them to do so during the life of the agreement. Showing that this bargaining is progressing, at the start of the fourth day’s meeting there were some concessions made around some of the more aggressive claims made by Sydney Trains and NSW Trains. 1. Sydney Trains have dropped their claim to replace the disputes resolution clause with the Fair
Work Commission minimum model clause. 2. Sydney Trains have dropped their claim to replace the consultation clause with the Fair Work
Commission minimum model clause. 3. NSW Trains have dropped their claims to remove clauses 12 and 13 in their entirety, meaning that these clauses will remain in the agreement. These are important clauses that give members and delegates power to deal with disputes, be consulted properly on workplace change, and to ensure that a deal is a deal and the employer cannot just change major conditions of employment at a whim. The fight continues, and we will have to escalate and intensify our action in order to achieve the claims we’ve made. We commend all members who have stood firm and taken action so far. It is because of the strength and unity of RTBU members that this progress has been made.
