Members Vote for New Sydney / NSW Trains

Ea

In an RTBU media release, 30 January 2023 the Union reported that rail workers have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a new enterprise agreement for Sydney and NSW Trains workers.

80 per cent of all eligible voters took part in the vote and 93.6 per cent of those voted in favour of the draft agreement.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union Secretary, Alex Claassens, said the vote is a significant win for workers and commuters.

“All we ever wanted was to secure safe trains for commuters and fair wages and conditions for rail workers. This means we’re another huge step towards achieving that.

“Rail workers have overwhelming voted in favour of the enterprise agreement that they had to fight so long and hard for, it’s a great outcome for everyone,” Mr Claassens said.

The voting participation again clearly demonstrates that rail workers are invested in rail safety and their future.

Mr Claassens said the final pay increase still needs to be decided in the Fair Work Commission, which was being heard on 8-9 February (see article on p 11, with details of FWC wage increase)

“The NSW Government is continuing to actively argue in the

Government’s argument would have rail workers wages going backwards in real terms. It’s an outcome essential workers will not accept, and we think the travelling public would agree with us.

“Unsurprisingly they are still using taxpayer funded lawyers to actively fight against rail workers getting higher wage increases but given the way they have fought us every step of the way, nothing is surprising.

“We’re looking forward to the Enterprise Agreement finally being completed, and we’re looking forward to seeing the crucial safety changes finally being made to the New Intercity Fleet.

Fair Work Commission against any further pay increase above the Government’s wages cap of 2.5 percent, even despite the current high inflation figures. The

“Today’s vote is a great win for workers and commuters. It was a hard slog to get here, but workers have stood together in solidarity and showed that rail safety is too important to ignore.”

QUBE Members Reject Enterprise Agreement

Members have seen through QUBE’s inadequate EA and in March emphatically told management to get back to the bargaining table and improve the offer. Whilst management are being coy about the exact results of the vote, the Union understands a vast majority of employees voted “NO” – this also explains why management are not keen on publishing the results.

With this emphatic result, members have let QUBE management know that the proposed agreement was not up-to-standard and the company needs to do more for its workers who are driving company profits. What happens next? The RTBU and EA delegates are ready and waiting to go back to bargaining to attempt to achieve a fair and reasonable Enterprise Agreement for all members, which includes recognition for the increased cost of living and profitability of QUBE, significantly more pay, reinstating deleted clauses, and accepting more of members’ log of claims.