Sydney Trains EA Negotiations

The RTBU and the Combined Rail Unions (CRU) have been attending the bargaining meetings with Sydney Trains via Microsoft Teams due to the current health restrictions.

Management have done everything possible to avoid discussing our claim for one enterprise agreement for both NSW Trains and Sydney Trains.

Their position is still 0.3%

In August the Sydney Morning Herald reported that 34 senior executives had received massive pay increases as, once again, front-line workers work through a global pandemic. On top of this, the Fair Work Commission ruled a few weeks ago that the Minimum Wage for Federal Awards would increase by 2.5%. Instead of updating their offer in light of the changing context, Sydney Trains once again reiterated their position of 0.3% for the first year of the new agreement. Management attempted to justify this insulting offer by talking about the state wages policy, which they refused to make available to our representatives. The 0.3% increase is based on a decision by the NSW Industrial Relations Commission for state- based award dependent employees. NSW Trains and Sydney Trains are in the Federal system and your Federal Agreement is not enforced in the NSW Industrial Relations system Management is deliberately taking a confusing and conflated position to try and disguise an offer of 0.3%. An offer that members have already resoundingly rejected.

Who is at the table?

In an insulting and unnecessarily hostile act, at the start of the bargaining process, Sydney Trains dared to suggest that if your representatives were not rostered to attend EA meetings or were on leave, they could participate in their own time.

That’s right. Sydney Trains thinks it is appropriate for your representatives NOT to GET PAID to attend EA meetings.

This is a ludicrous position that in no way reflects good faith bargaining or the way that we have always negotiated. We made it very clear this position is entirely unacceptable and have thus far managed to have our delegates released and paid.

Log of Claims

The RTBU and the Combined Rail Unions (CRU) forwarded our

combined log of claims to both NSW Trains and Sydney Trains and proposed a simple way to take both entities through what members want. We have invited NSW Trains and Sydney Trains to attend a meeting with your combined EA Delegate team from NSW Trains and Sydney Trains so they can hear directly from Delegates about what these claims mean and why they are important. “Sydney Trains dared We all worked really hard with Delegates to suggest that if your and members to design a detailed log for both NSW Trains and Sydney representatives were Trains. We built the claim together and it not rostered to attend would be a disservice to our entire bargaining team to present our EA meetings or were combined log separately. At the time of writing, on leave, they could Sydney Trains still refuse to meet with our combined delegate team. participate in their Sydney Trains finally agreed to consider our own time” request for a combined meeting with NSW Trains and at time of printing, still have not agreed.

What happens next?

Your representatives will continue to try and negotiate in good faith. We successfully applied to the Fair Work Commission seeking a Protected Action Ballot. Voting for the Protected Action Ballot closed on 30 August, with over 90% of members voting in favour of protected industrial action. Both NSW Trains and Sydney Trains have engaged expensive union busting lawyers to try to stop you taking action to advance your industrial interests.

Yet Railtrain stubbornly resist negotiating a fair and reasonable EA

In early August, the RTBU Locomotive Division wrote to Railtrain Management outlining concerns that Railtrain Services Pty Ltd (RTS) and Rail Shuttle Services Pty Ltd (RSS) had not met good faith bargaining requirements under Section 22(1)(e) of the Fair Work Act 2009. The RTBU has been proactively endeavouring to negotiate one Enterprise Agreement to cover all NSW Railtrain employees, while at the same time Railtrain have constantly refused to seriously consider this request and have continued with their past practices, trying every trick in the book to deny their employees a decent EA with pay and conditions in line with industry standards. As recently as August Railtrain Holdings (The Parent Company) tried to get a sub-standard agreement through in their latest subsidiary company “Rail Shuttle Services”. We are extremely pleased to report that Rail Shuttle Services members and employees have seen through this corporate trickery and have voted the agreement down 19 NO to 5 yes. Congratulations to all those brave members and employees who have stood up to Railtrain and said “no, we are not accepting inferior wages and conditions.” As some members may have seen on Locoexpress and in the newspapers recently, the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission quashed an agreement of one of Railtrain’s other subsidiary companies “Karijini Rail Pty Ltd”. We urge all members to read the full article in Locoexpress and the story in the Australian Financial Review, but in short this was just another example of Railtrain’s questionable bargaining tactics. Railtrain set up a company with just two employees to get an EA through the Fair Work Commission with the intention of then applying that EA to a large group of employees, who were already working for them under another agreement. The FWC has seen through this questionable tactic and quashed the so-called ‘agreement’. This case again clearly demonstrates the underhanded tactics that Railtrain will use in bargaining. The RTBU is making every effort to hold Railtrain to account and push Railtrain to start providing their employees with secure and meaningful jobs with decent pay and conditions. Railtrain were asked to respond to our concerns by 4pm 9 August 2021.

RailTrain Update

Disappointingly, we have continued to see evasive and hollow moves from Railtrain since members and employees recently voted down the proposed Rail Shuttle Services Agreement. In continuing efforts to bargain in good faith, the RTBU Locomotive Division again met with Railtrain Management as part of their scheduled Railtrain Hunter Port Services negotiation on Tuesday 17 August. Railtrain continued to push the position that it wants at least three separate NSW agreements yet failed to provide any logical reason as to why. On Thursday 18 August, after months of frustration, the RTBU lodged an application with the Fair Work Commission for Bargaining Orders against Railtrain. A Bargaining Order can be issued by the Commission when it is satisfied the Good Faith Bargaining requirements of the Fair Work Act have not been met after having heard arguments from the Union and its members, and the employer. The RTBU has raised with the Commission several concerns with how bargaining is progressing and that it does not believe Railtrain and its subsidiary companies have been meeting the requirements of the Fair Work Act. Specifically, the RTBU has raised its concerns about: 1. A failure to issue a NERR to the employees covered by the scope proposed by the RTBU; 2. A perceived failure to issue a

NERR to the employees who were voting on the HPS Agreement; 3. Railtrain unilaterally declaring items as closed in bargaining despite there being no agreement such items were closed, and 4. Excluding the RTBU from the bargaining process by deciding to put the HPS Agreement to an employee vote without disclosing this action to the RTBU. The matter was listed for a telephone conciliation in the Fair Work Commission on Friday 27 August 2021. Footnote – The RTBU team again met in good faith with Railtrain on 20 August, in relation to Rail Shuttle Services EA. Whilst there was some change in Railtrain’s approach, they are still ignoring our request for one EA with fair and proper industry standard conditions and wages.