RTBU’s member ‘hotline’ to turn off Opal card readers amid Sydney rail union dispute
Rail union members are being instructed to hit emergency buttons and trip circuits in Opal card readers, in a move the Transport Minister says “could be illegal”.
NSW
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A union move to turn off Opal card readers could end up in the courts in a move set to cause a multimillion hit to the NSW Government’s coffers.
Commuters could enjoy free travel on the state’s transport network under the rail union’s plan to switch off Opal card readers indefinitely.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has now established a “hotline” to tell members how to turn off Opal card readers including by taking dramatic action to sabotage the technology.
In a memo to members, leaked to The Daily Telegraph, the union suggested hitting the “emergency egress button, flicking the internal switch on legacy gates, or tripping the circuit breaker for the stand-alone opal ‘poles’” to turn off the network.
Transport bosses said late on Wednesday they would write to the RTBU urging them to dump their plans, set to begin on September 21.
A Transport for NSW spokeswoman said the body “does not consider this ban to be protected or lawful action and is seeking legal advice, and will write to the RTBU seeking a withdrawal of this action.”
Transport Minister David Elliott described the move as “an act of economic bastardry” which would bite taxpayers.
“We believe that ripping off the taxpayers of this state could be illegal,” he said.
“The union is carrying on as if they are personally targeting the Premier and I.
“It’s not coming out of my pocket. The union is forcing Transport to bleed money, hardly the sort of thing you would do if you’re asking us to invest more.
“How turning off the Opal card system is going to improve their position or safety is beyond me.
“They are not doing themselves any favours in the public eye – commuters are sophisticated enough to know nothing’s free.”
RTBU NSW Secretary Alex Claassens said he was “certainly” confident the instructions were safe and backed the move as legal.
“We’ve gone out there with information to do that (shut down Opal readers). And no doubt we’ll have some people running around showing them how to do it if they need to,” he said.
Regarding the order from Transport to stop the action, he said “We‘ll wait on the letter and we’ll see where that takes us.”
“We‘re very confident (it’s protected) because we’ve had lawyers and other people involved in that whole process. So as far as we’re concerned, we’re within our rights to do that,” he said.
The union boss added there was “obviously a lot more industrial action we can take”, but the union was holding off – saying the Opal blackout which is set to cost millions is being done “to hurt the government and the senior bureaucrats”.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese refused to be drawn into the debate, and defended Workplace Minister Tony Burke for writing to the Fair Work Commission flagging law changes, which could impact negotiations between the NSW Government and the union.
“There's been no intervention, it’s a matter of a dispute between the New South Wales Government and RTBU and I certainly encourage all parties to come to a resolution,” he said.
Mr Albanese added: “I’ve got a big job and I’ll do my job, that is what I’m focused on.”
Premier Dominic Perrottet said the union’s latest measure was motivated by the fact that 90 per cent of commuters continued to tap on when gates were left open in recent weeks, despite seeing a drop of about 92,000 commuters in one day.
“That just shows that the people of NSW just want to get on with it,” he said.
“I’d ask the union to work constructively with the government and appreciate the pressures that we’re all under.”
The NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) has proposed the new measure ahead of a hearing at the Fair Work Commission over its long-running dispute with the state government.
The action would see the entire Opal card system go dark next week from Wednesday September 21 with an aim to minimise disruption to passengers.
“On Sunday night, we notified Sydney Trains and NSW Trains of new industrial actions that will commence from September 21 2022 and continue indefinitely,” a statement distributed to union members read.
“The major action we notified is an action that allows us to deactivate the opal readers and gates. This will allow commuters to travel around the network for free.”
The statement continued to say “if there is no way to tap on or off, then they cannot be fined”, noting the measure was “coupled with our Transport Officers not issuing fines and cautions”.
Members were also encouraged to turn off the readers being provided with several ways to deactivate them.
RTBU secretary Alex Claassens said the protected action was “designed to cause a headache” for the state government over their “continued refusal to deliver safe train and fair wages and conditions for workers”.
“It’s good news for commuters and will hopefully force the NSW Government to reconsider its current strategy of stalling negotiations and picking public fights,” Mr Claassens said.
“It appears the NSW Government is more interested in playing political games.”
On September 10, the rail union reopened Opal gates for another month, although passengers were warned that fare evasions still apply.
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