Strachan inquiry finds restrictive union work rules part of problems at Queensland Rail
THE Government risks being stranded at the platform by voters if it fails to stand up to the unions, as it races to tackle the long-standing workplace rules that helped bring Queensland Rail to its knees.
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AS PREMIER Annastacia Palaszczuk faced the media over the damning results of a probe into how the wheels came off Queensland Rail, it wasn’t long before an uncomfortable question lobbed: “Are you on a collision course with the unions?”
The reply signalled less of a looming head-on crash than an embarrassing bingle between old friends.
“I respect the union,” Palaszczuk replied during Monday’s press conference.
“We will work with the union because I firmly believe that the union wants the best for the travelling public as well,” she continued.
“And we will be making that incredibly clear to them this afternoon.”
It came less than an hour after the delivery of damning findings by the commission of inquiry into the QR problems that the unions helped create the rail havoc that tipped the network into crisis.
The inquiry lifted the lid on the generous conditions secured for QR train drivers and guards by the Rail Tram and Bus Union that had proven anything but a win for commuters or taxpayers.
Train crew productivity had plummeted 7 per cent in two years partially due to changes to crewing rules negotiated by the unions, including a bonus 20-minute break. And the inquiry found a QR preference to operate with an up to 10 per cent undersupply of drivers ensured lucrative overtime payments.
At the height of the timetable fiasco, when hundreds of services were cancelled and commuters stranded on platforms, overtime payments for train crew had soared.
The unions had also secured further control over driver number thanks to “closed shop” internal recruitment rules and a blowout in training times to 18 months.
It did nothing to boost productivity, according to the inquiry. But it did help shore up the unions’ membership base, according to QR sources frustrated by the rule.
But by last October, the shortages had spiralled out of control. Train drivers’ overtime had shot up an astonishing 19 per cent in a year. The combination of restrictive union work rules, an “ambitious” increase in services following the Redcliffe rail line opening and poor planning combined to create an avalanche for the Palaszczuk Government.
Over coming weeks, the disaster would lift the lid on not just ineffective management of the taxpayer-funded statutory authority, but the fact the union was driving the gravy train.
The union overtime rort would be exposed, while union claims internal hiring rules sped up driver training were shot apart.
“Queensland Rail has historically operated with a structural shortfall of train crew, despite budgeted and vacant positions being available in order to provide overtime opportunities for train crew,” the inquiry found.
“This persistent shortfall of train crew was well known within Queensland Rail and not considered an issue.”
As one former QR executive described it in the words of business tycoon Warren Buffett: “You only find out who is swimming naked when the tide goes out.”
In the case of QR, the rail fail has exposed the cosy relationship between the first-term Palaszczuk Government and the unions, whose vociferous campaigning on asset sales had helped pull off the impossible and annihilate the Campbell Newman government within three years.
Griffith University political scientist Dr Paul Williams says the Palaszczuk Government election win set the scene for a resurgence of the Labor factions. But the long-standing problem of Labor being perceived as puppets of the unions could also become its weak spot at the next election, he says.
“There is a real sense that the caucus are very aware of the power the unions have. It’s always been there, but now it’s very open and overt.
“Clearly we are seeing some policy shaped around union interests. The ties were always close so the muscle was always there, but the muscle is being flexed.
“Annastacia Palaszczuk does actually need to campaign to say she is her own woman, we are our own government, the unions support Labor, but they don’t run Labor.
“A big one (criticism) will be that it’s too close to the union movement.”
The win marked a return from the political wilderness after the humiliating drubbing of Anna Bligh’s administration and its asset sales agenda.
Such was the hit to Labor’s popularity from the landslide defeat by Newman in 2012, desperate party officials slashed membership fees to the price of a McDonald’s Happy Meal.
The unions tipped in more than $370,000 to Labor Party state coffers in the months before the 2015 poll. That included a lump $25,000 donation to the ALP from the RTBU.
Williams says the union influence today is “rooted in the defeat and recovery of Labor”.
Unions sitting on the Left had “played a proportionately bigger role in the Labor’s recovery and mobilisation (mainly because of asset sales) than normal”.
“They’ve played a big role in the recovery and they’ve played a big role in the victory.
“The whole Labor machine stirred to life after the defeat of 2012 and it appears the Left are much better mobilised, resourced, energised to recover than the two Right factions.
“We are seeing the proof of that pudding today in that the Left has a very strong representation in caucus, in the Cabinet.”
The 2015 LNP defeat sparked an all-night victory celebration by Labor’s left leaning unionists that extended into the next morning.
Officials from the Electrical Trades Union, Construction Forestry and Mining Energy Union and others from the Left were spotted bleary eyed but exuberant at the Breakfast Creek Hotel that morning lauding the win and their role.
Talk had already turned to the factional make-up of the new Cabinet.
The win heralded a strengthening of the dominant Left – aligned to unions including the RTBU, CFMEU and the ETU.
Criticisms of the new Palaszczuk Government’s pro-trade agenda quickly surfaced.
One of Parliament’s first pieces of legislation reversed changes to union conditions and perks brought in by the LNP.
Union “encouragement” clauses were reinstated, making it easier for delegates to sign-up public servants as members. Right of entry laws were introduced, enabling union officials to enter construction sites. Labour Day was returned to May.
Licensed plumbers were given the sole rights to installing water meters, with Treasurer Curtis Pitt praising the unions’ advocacy on the issue.
The ALP also established a state-funded business offering metering, solar and other household electrical services to the private market to placate the ETU after merging the state’s energy retailers.
Labor also killed off the LNP’s ineffective union transparency measures, which had included forcing union officeholders to release their credit card statements.
But moves to strengthen the trade unions in Queensland led to some cautionary advice from Health Minister Cameron Dick in late 2015. Addressing branch members on the Sunshine Coast in November that year, Dick warned the party must remain relevant amid a “record low” for the Labor movement.
He referred to a decision before the election boosting the role of affiliated trade unions in the selection process for the state parliamentary Labor leader.
“As a party, we need to find ways to speak to, to connect with and to share the aspirations of the workers of the future who will be more individualistic and a lesser part of a mass working movement,” he told members.
Skip forward to May 2016 and trouble was brewing in one of the state’s most heavily unionised workforces – Queensland Rail. The RTBU was negotiating a series of new enterprise agreements.
Negotiations for QR’s 471 drivers and cohort of guards had dragged on months when members in September voted for rolling work stoppages.
The strike plan was a looming disaster for QR; already under strain from the driver shortage – although the severity of the shortfall was then still a guarded secret.
QR was also about to open the $1 billion Redcliffe line and rollout an “ambitious” new timetable, despite being hopelessly understaffed.
It was in this climate that it began negotiating driver wage and conditions.
The inquiry found QR “may have accepted overly restrictive crewing rules because it negotiated the new train crew enterprise agreement while operating with a train crew shortfall and while implementing a major timetable change”.
The Courier-Mail revealed this week that the board had pushed back, refusing to endorse the driver deal because of an “excessive” pay rise for train crew. It is understood Treasurer Curtis Pitt – one of the two responsible ministers for QR – intervened to ensure the rise went ahead.
His office has denied issuing any “legally binding” directive to the QR board. But the rail inquiry found the board had not only been kept in the dark about the magnitude of the driver shortages, but had been cut out of the bargaining.
The board was “not asked to formally approve either the in-principal acceptance of the 2016 Train Crew Enterprise Agreement”, the inquiry revealed.
Pitt met with the RTBU and smaller Australian Federated Union of Locomotive Employees in September last year, according to his ministerial diary. He has said the meeting discussed QR’s New Generation Rollingstock project but his office could not rule out that the negotiations came up.
The meeting was held just weeks before the unions secured an in-principle deal for train crew in October, halting strike plans.
It strengthened internal recruitment rules, locking out retired and interstate drivers from applying for hundreds of vacancies.
The major sticking point for board members was a proposed 12 per cent pay rise over four years for drivers and guards, far outstripping consumer price index rises. Productivity would lift by less than 1 per cent under the deal. And it came despite the tight Budget and extra burden it would create for taxpayers. (The Government tips subsidies of about $2 billion into QR passenger services.)
It is understood board members were furious at the political intervention, with the agreement drawn up by external consultants and presented as a “done deal”.
Pitt replied to questions about the board being sidelined saying it was important the Government had an “early look” at the bargaining framework.
The LNP is expected to push for further detail in Parliament next week.
“There’s a rotten smell about the rail unions’ stranglehold on this Labor Government and Curtis Pitt is at the core of it,” Opposition transport spokesman Andrew Powell says.
The Palaszczuk Government is now racing to tackle the long-standing union rules that helped bring QR to its knees in its first real union battle. It risks another timetable meltdown during next year’s Commonwealth Games if it fails.
The inquiry found there had been little progress in hiring drivers since the crisis and warned it would “become increasingly difficult” to meet extra demand created by the Games. It recommended opening up recruitment to create a driver surplus.
While union talks with the Government have begun, it is expected the RTBU will not give up ground easily.
State secretary Owen Doogan this week dismissed internal hiring was a problem.
“The recruitment of train crew from internal (staff) has historically been the way ... forever and a day,” he said. He, instead, took aim at the QR Board. He blames driver training delays on a shortage of driver trainers.
Palaszczuk has said union talks will cover external recruitment.
“We want to see Queensland Rail performing as one of the best in the nation and that means good, strong leadership,” she said.
Asked how they would unwind the union control, Palaszczuk responded: “We’re going to get them in the room … and we are going to talk to them.
“As I’ve said, I am quite sure that they have the same views as me and my Cabinet, when it comes to making sure that we have enough train drivers, enough guards to service the travelling public.”
More than three months after the rail problems emerged, Paul Williams says the Government risks being stranded at the platform by voters if it fails to stand up to the unions in its first major public challenge.
“There won’t be much in the next election and Labor are going into it with this Achilles heel,” he said.
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