End to train chaos in sight as workers ordered to vote on wage deal

The Minns government has won a bid to force the state’s rail workers to vote on a new wage deal, signalling an end to a marathon industrial dispute that has disrupted the train network for months.

Last month, the government and combined rail unions reached an in-principle agreement for a 12 per cent pay rise over three years, backdated to May 2024, for workers after months of negotiations.

The government and rail unions reached an in-principle agreement for a 12 per cent pay rise over three years.Credit: Max Mason-Hubers

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) supported the proposed deal, but the Electrical Trades Union (ETU) sought to block the vote over a narrow issue – a position the Fair Work Commission described as “disappointing, to say the least”. The ETU’s opposition prompted the government to last week request the industrial umpire order a ballot of thousands of NSW and Sydney Trains employees.

The commission sided with the government, dismissing an application from the ETU to stop the vote and ordering the ballot to proceed late on Friday after an hours-long hearing.

Transport Minister John Graham said on Friday the commission’s decision was “another critical step to ending disruption for a million rail commuters a day”. He said finalising the agreement would enable rail workers to focus on improving maintenance and reliability across the network.

“It’s time to let the workforce decide. The government’s view is that this is a good deal for rail workers.”

The government’s months-long dispute with the rail unions has since September disrupted the network and frustrated passengers before Fair Work ordered a halt to industrial action in February.

At Friday’s hearing, the ETU’s lawyer Hamish Clift argued the rail agencies had not negotiated in good faith and the union’s representatives had been “railroaded” and “shut out” of late discussions.

Also at issue was a claim relating to the way in which trades maintenance and engineering employees had been categorised in the proposed agreement.

Lawyers for the rail agencies and RTBU told the commission the ETU had only raised that claim after the parties had struck the wage deal, following months of negotiations and bargaining, on May 30.

The rail agencies’ lawyer, Alice DeBoos, argued the ETU had not been excluded at any stage of the negotiations and the government had negotiated in good faith. She said the final log of claims in the in-principle agreement had been the subject of “extensive negotiations, bargaining and scrutiny”.

“Anything that’s going to cost any more money will, self-evidently, not be agreed by the rail agencies.”

DeBoos noted most of 13,500 rail workers covered by the proposed wage agreement were supportive, and even “if the order [for the ballot to proceed] is not granted, the package is not going to change”.

She said it was not unusual in multi-enterprise agreements for a proposed deal to go to a vote without the support of one union, and the ability for the commission to order the vote to go ahead was intended as a “release valve” in such situations.

The unions had been seeking a 32 per cent pay rise over four years; the government opened with a 9.5 per cent rise over three years.

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