Union boss returns fire over Sydney Trains employees’ perks at stake amid ongoing strikes and industrial action

Alex Claassens says it’s “a bit rich” for the industrial relations minister to be talking about rail employees’ earning up to $120K and their perks ahead of a crunch strikes meeting.

Rail union boss Alex Claassens has taken aim at NSW industrial relations Minister Damien Tudehope over train workers perks, saying “it’s a bit rich for a guy in the Upper House to be talking about our benefits and perks”.

It comes ahead of a crunch meeting which could force the government back to the negotiating table in the long-running trains campaign, and in response to The Daily Telegraph’s Monday article revealing the perks set out in their current pay agreement with the government.

Mr Claassens, the Rail, Tram and Bus Union secretary fired back: “I mean, I don’t get picked up in the chauffeur driven limousine every day”.

“The reality is that union members are entitled to a certain range of conditions that they fought for long and hard,” he said.

“Our cleaners are getting paid $52,000 a year at a base rate. The manager that manages them is on $250,000 a year. How is that fair?”

Mr Claassens added the union wouldn’t lodge plans for further industrial action while the matter is heard in the Fair Work Commission, which is set to start Tuesday.

“We have to notify 10 days in advance. We’re still standing by that. Obviously, we’re not going to notify any serious industrial action while we’re waiting for the outcome out of the commission,” he said on Monday.

The average wage of Sydney Trains workers has been revealed.

THE PREMIER

An allowance of more than $3000 each year for workers who do not undertake illegal strikes, extra cash paid to guards who walk through train carriages, and a paid day off to attend a union picnic are among the perks enjoyed by Sydney Trains employees.

The revelations came as Premier Dominic Perrottet denied his government has backed down on threats to shred the current pay agreement with the rail union despite the union continuing with industrial action.

Analysis of the current Enterprise Bargaining Agreement – at the centre of rolling train strikes that have crippled Sydney – show that Sydney Trains workers earn on average almost $120,000 a year, including a number of cushy perks like “picnic days” and free travel on public transport.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: David Swift

THE PERKS

The union is demanding changes to a $2.8 billion fleet of trains it says are unsafe and seeking pay rises above the government’s public sector wage cap.

The cushy perks already enjoyed by workers include an “industry allowance” worth more than $3000. The payment can be withdrawn if workers strike in contravention of the enterprise agreement’s dispute resolution clause.

Workers can also get paid for some of their travel time if they are forced to clock on from a place other than their designated “home station”.

The NSW Government last week set a deadline for 5pm on Friday for the union to cease all actions, or it would cut the pay agreement as well as an offer to make alterations to the New Intercity Fleet demanded by the union.

However the Rail, Tram and Bus Union kept undertaking low-level industrial action, such as keeping gates open at stations around the state, with Mr Perrottet on Monday adding the caveat that the threat would only be carried out if action impacted commuters negatively.

“I’ve made it very clear if there is any action, as I said last week, that inconveniences the people of New South Wales, or there is any action on the Metro works … we will immediately make an application to terminate the enterprise agreement,” Mr Perrottet said.

NEW MESSAGE

He added keeping the gates open was “probably not an inconvenience” to commuters, who have so far endured weeks of on-again, off again chaos on the network.

It was a far cry from the message the Premier and his Ministers put out last week.

Mr Perrottet last Wednesday said if there was “any action from this point … until that enterprise agreement is voted on” that the government would seek to slash its current pay agreement with the union, as well as rescinding an offer to make alterations to the $2.8 billion New Intercity Fleet demanded by the union.

Last Thursday, Mr Tudehope also added if Opal gates remained open, that would constitute industrial action which could be relied upon to cancel the enterprise agreement.

The Rail, Tram and Bus Union made an application to the Fair Work Commission on Friday to force the government back to the bargaining table over ongoing discussions on their pay agreement.

Federal workplace relations minister, Tony Burke, wrote to the commission last week that Labor wanted to introduce new laws, including limiting employers’ power to threaten to cut pay.

Sydney commuters at the start of the peak hour rush at Town Hall Station during another train strike. The rolling industrial action has been plaguing the city for months. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Mr Perrottet said on Monday it was “highly unusual” the Labor Minister had intervened in the stoush.

“I find it highly unusual that you would flag to the Fair Work Commission legislation that you may be at some point in time introducing. And you flag that in the middle of the Job Summit. And you flag it in the middle of a significant action by the union movement … in NSW,” he said.

Mr Burke defended his decision and said it was the “right” thing to do.

“It’s not unusual for ministers for workplace relations to write to the Fair Work Commission, not unusual at all, not unusual for them to go to the Fair Work Commission in order to update the Fair Work Commission with what’s happening with legislation,” he said during question time.

“There is nothing unusual were inappropriate about the minister writing to the Fair Work Commission to indicate there are going to be some changes to the law, which will potentially affect the way in which the commission does its work. That’s something that actually happened quite routinely.”

TUESDAY FAIR WORK MEETING

Ahead of a crucial Fair Work Commission meeting on Tuesday, Mr Tudehope said the government would not keep rewarding “bully behaviour” from the unions.

“Over the years rail workers have accumulated highly generous pay and conditions compared to the salaries and benefits available in the private sector,” he said.

He also said he was seeking advice on whether federal Industrial Relations Minister Tony Burke broke the law in signalling that the Albanese government would legislate to stop employers threatening to tear up pay deals.

Mr Tudehope labelled Mr Burke’s letter to the Fair Work Commission as a “brazen” intervention in the NSW government’s dispute with the rail union.

“This sends a clear message to (RTBU secretary) Alex Claassens and the rail unions – keep up the strikes, Labor has your back,” he said.

Mr Tudehope said he would seek advice on whether Mr Burke’s letter constituted “improper influence of the Fair Work Commission under section 674(5) of the Fair Work Act” – an offence which can carry a penalty of a year in jail.

One Nation NSW MP Mark Latham said the government needed to find other workers to drive trains due to the ongoing strikes.

“Like most public sector workers, their conditions are well in advance of the private sector,” Mr Latham said. “But if they (train drivers) don’t want to do it, the government has to find other workers to get these trains running again.”

The RTBU was contacted for a comment.