Rail union and state government fight it out at Fair Work Commission

The state government and the RTBU are fighting it out in front of the Fair Work Commission ahead of more planned industrial action this week.

Rail workers and the state government have gone head-to-head in front of the nation’s industrial umpire as tensions between the parties continued to escalate.

As revealed by The Daily Telegraph, the NSW government began proceedings against the Rail Tram and Bus Union in the Fair Work Commission on Monday.

Mr Perrottet said the unions wanted families to foot the bill for their demands and were impacting small businesses with their industrial action.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has taken the RTBU to the Fair Work Commission. Picture: David Swift

“The funding that comes for public sector wages doesn’t come from me. It comes from mums and dads and families across our state who pay taxes and how unfair it is on them, who are not earning wages at the same rate as the public sector, for the public sector to be demanding that if everybody else pays the debt for them to have a substantial increase at their expense,” he said.

“We shouldn’t be inconveniencing our parents, our schoolchildren, our communities, our small businesses … We’ve had small businesses close for months during the pandemic. (They) couldn’t make $1 during the pandemic. And those small businesses rely on public transport every day.”

RTBU NSW Secretary Alex Claassens said Mr Perrottet’s rationale for going to the commission was disingenuous.

“Not a single one of our actions so far this year have stopped trains. Most are designed purely to target management, like today’s (Monday) action which involves trains sounding their whistles as they leave stations,” Mr Claassens said.

RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens. Picture: Nikki Short

The Daily Telegraph was the first to reveal the story.

The union is seeking to have the government’s offer to fix safety concerns in the New Intercity Fleet in writing — separate to the enterprise bargaining agreement.

“We’re hopeful that the Fair Work Commission will be able to get the NSW Government to confirm in writing what its real intentions are so we can finally get the safety issues on the New Intercity Fleet sorted and get back to negotiating a fair enterprise agreement,” Mr Claassens said.

“We need to get the safety issues on the New Intercity Fleet sorted so we can then get back to the negotiating table with all the other unions involved and discuss the wages and conditions of the state’s rail workers.

A hearing was held between the parties on Monday afternoon.

Unions NSW Assistant Secretary Thomas Costa was in the meeting and said “the government was seeking a complete termination of all industrial action from the Electrical Trades Union and the RTBU”.