Our Rights Our Fight

It was a less-than-merry Christmas for the NSW Government with the RTBU forced to roll out a Protected Action Advent Calendar after long-running enterprise bargaining talks with Transport for NSW (TfNSW) stalled.

NSW Branch Secretary Alex Claassens said members were left with no choice but to take further protected industrial action, with the Government playing Uncle Scrooge and negotiations for a new Enterprise Agreement seemingly going nowhere. “It’s unfortunate that workers were forced into this position by TfNSW management and the NSW Government,” Alex said. “Workers didn’t want to take action, but were not left with any other options, with management and the Government refusing to commit to basic safety, hygiene and privatisation provisions as part of the EA negotiations.” The advent calendar highlighted a number of RTBU bans and actions, including: • A work-to-rule; • Station staff and shunters wearing union gear and shorts; • Bans on cleaning up hazardous waste and graffti; • Network-wide overnight stoppages; • Train drivers blowing whistles at stations (during daylight hours); • A ban on performing work when contractors were present; • Station staff sitting down on duty; and • Day-long bans on operating overseas-built rolling stock. The calendar also recommended RTBU members make a concerted effort to communicate the union’s position by speaking to the public, making announcements wherever possible, and attaching union material to railway assets and outgoing correspondence. But it was the ban on overseasbuilt rolling stock that had perhaps the most impact, with rail workers refusing to operate those trains on two Tuesdays, December 7 and 14. The action meant about 75 per cent of Sydney suburban and NSW intercity trains were out of action, with services running to a reduced frequency on most lines, with additional station stops and longer journey times. “We know actions like this are an inconvenience to commuters, but the ball was in the court of management and the Government,” Alex said. “They could have stopped the action by simply agreeing to workers’ basic asks around safety, hygiene and privatisation.

“Our action had an impact on services because so many of our transport assets are built overseas. “That’s particularly significant given all the issues we’re seeing with overseas-built transport assets at the moment, such as the innerwest light rail and the New InterCity Fleet.”

Train drivers and guards are particularly concerned about the latter, with the South Korean-built fleet yet to enter service following major safety concerns. The New InterCity Fleet is designed to be run without guards, with their important role replaced by CCTV monitored by the driver, posing a huge safety risk to workers and commuters. Earlier united action by RTBU members saw TfNSW back down on an insulting pay offer of just 0.3 per cent in the next EBA. It is now offering a 2.5 per cent pay increase, inclusive of superannuation. But at the time of writing key sticking points in the EA negotiations included: • Privatisation – workers want a commitment to services and jobs in the event of privatisation; • safety claims – workers want a guarantee that any changes to our services will leave them as safe or safer; • hygiene – workers want a commitment to maintaining the existing level of hygiene using good, publicly owned jobs.