The NSW Government has reached an agreement with the Combined Rail Unions in the Fair Work Commission, bringing to an end the industrial dispute that has disrupted the network and inconvenienced passengers.
The proposed Enterprise Agreement, facilitated by the Fair Work Commission, delivers rail workers a 12% pay rise over three years plus back pay. The deal ends protected industrial action by the Combined Rail Unions.
“This agreement will bring relief to the disruption from protected industrial action that a million daily rail commuters have been forced to endure while just trying to get to work and get around,” said Minister for Transport, John Graham.
“This process has strained the patience of train passengers but in finalising this deal we have made a very important investment in reliability.
“This much-needed reset allows us to implement improvements for passengers with the full support of the rail workforce and unions.
“We said we would sign off on a fair and reasonable wage rise for our rail workers that protects taxpayer’s money, and that is exactly what we have done. I want to thank the commuting public for their patience as we got this agreement done.”
Under the agreement, train crews will support the introduction of a new digital disruption management system that will end the current practice that relies on a manual system of phone calls and paper-based instructions during recovery from an incident.
This technology will help significantly reduce the time it takes to get the network back to normal when disruptions happen, the Minister says.
Unions have agreed to support the rollout and other tech-based changes to reduce time lost to delays.
The unions and Government have also reached agreement to move to a streamlined process for consulting on new fleet, systems and infrastructure projects. Under the previous agreement, the consultation process had no mechanism to prevent consultation continuing for years before a change could be implemented.
Importantly, the updated consultation process will provide a mechanism for the union to progressively escalate to subject matter experts if there are safety concerns related to a new project.
“This agreement is proof that a responsible government can bargain to reach a deal that’s good for taxpayers and good for workers,” said Minister for Industrial Relations, Sophie Cotsis.
“This has been an intense bargaining process. Each day, one million commuters depend on the Sydney rail network and we thank the workforce and unions for their meticulous efforts keeping passengers safe.
“This agreement provides certainty around consultation between the government and the workforce.”
In regional NSW, the rail unions have agreed to support the introduction of the new Regional Rail Fleet.
Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink will also become one entity during the life of the agreement, reducing duplication but ensuring frontline services remain at the same level at regional stations and on trains. This saving and ongoing efficiency will fund 1% of the deal under the mutual gains framework, the Government says.
The agreement, which will begin after a successful ballot of employees, will also include back pay to cover the gap the between the last agreement expiring and the new EA starting.
There remains one outstanding clause that the ETU does not support and the Fair Work Commission is assisting to resolve that matter. This does not affect the agreement with the Combined Rail Unions and a request has been made to now put it to a vote of the rail workforce.
“This is a positive result for rail workers and for commuters,” said NSW Treasurer, Daniel Mookhey.
“Rail workers will benefit from a fair wage increase, commuters will have greater certainty, and our city will be better off.
“Sydney is a global city, and our public transport system should reflect that. This agreement will ensure our rail network can keep moving forward,” he said.
