PN IPS Members fight to restore wages and conditions

Salaried RTBU Members at Pacific National Service Delivery are in the fight of their life to restore Industry standard Wages and Conditions to their Workplace.

From 2015 onwards Pacific National went through various restructures within Planning and Service Delivery which resulted in staff being separated from their various Enterprise Agreements and put on individual contracts.

During these years staff saw their wages fall steadily against Industry Standards and their competitors.

Last year people had finally had enough and voted overwhelmingly through a majority support determination to bargain collectively.

Despite Pacific National fighting tooth and nail the RTBU has been negotiating a Collective Union Agreement for the last 14 months. Staff have done a magnificent job organising themselves, membership has soared from under 20 to over 100 and we have eight amazing RTBU Delegates (pictured)

Recently RTBU members endorsed a campaign of Protected Industrial Action culminating in a 72 hour stoppage – staring down threats and typical PN Bully Boy tactics. They have the entire RTBU behind them.

Derailment of Passenger Train ST 23

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s (ATSB) final report into the Wallan derailment in 2020 has been handed down highlighting the need to improve the Australian Rail Safety Regime. It also called out issues relating to safety critical communication and the perils of inconsistent safe working across state borders.

As we know two members of our railway family died that day and 8 Passengers were seriously injured with 5 passenger services crew and 53 passengers categorised as having minor injuries.

We can only hope that this tragic incident spurs genuine change to rail safety processes so that something like this never happens again.

State, Territory and Federal Transport Ministers met in June, where they agreed to an RTBU request for a review of national rail safety laws and the rail safety regulator. The rail safety review must address several key issues including:

• The lack of transparency of Office of National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) decisions and investigative processes, which are inhibited by the current legislation;

• Confusion about the overlapping responsibility between the Rail Safety National Law and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) laws;

• Whether the co-regulatory model for rail safety is working appropriately; and

• ONRSRS’s independence from industry.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) Assistant National Secretary Shayne Kummerfeld said “when rail workers have concerns about safety, they need to know that the regulator is taking these concerns seriously and that action is being taken.

“We have been talking about these issues for far too long.”