NSW railway, energy and health workers will push the Minns government for pay rises of up to 8 per cent in a wave of new negotiations over the next three months, and union officials hope they will trigger more increases across the country.

Just over 15 months after the Perrottet government ended a year of industrial action which crippled the state’s railways, a cohort of five unions led by Unions NSW and representing railway workers is preparing to hammer out a new agreement asking for an increase of about 5 per cent.