How much train drivers actually work
The startling amount of time Sydney Trains’ drivers actually spend per shift with their foot to the plate has been revealed.
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The startling amount of time Sydney Trains’ drivers actually spend per shift with their foot to the plate has been revealed.
Sydney’s rail network was plunged into chaos this week after industrial action was launched by the Electrical Trades Union and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) – stranding hundreds of thousands of commuters and leading to the cancellation of over 1000 services.
The latter group has demanded a 32 per cent wage increase over four years amid its long-running dispute with the NSW Government. The state government has repeatedly rejected the pay rise, putting forward a 15 per cent pay increase in its latest offer – which the RTBU, in turn, has knocked back.
Per the NSW iteration of the Rail Safety National Law, which spells out the maximum shift length a train driver is permitted to work, a sole rail safety worker driving an interurban or long-distance passenger train can work up to 10 hours in a single shift. In the case of those driving suburban trains, the maximum shift length drops back to nine hours.
When there are two workers operating a passenger train – if the second driver is qualified, the maximum shift length for both is 12 hours. In the case of any other two-person operation, it reduces to 11 hours.
But how much of that is so-called “footplate” time?
Well, half of the job of a Sydney Trains Driver is preparation for a safety critical role. On average, 49.9 per cent of their time is spent making their train safe and ready to drive, analysing critical safety documentation about the state of the network and the rail fleet, undertaking professional training and transiting between Sydney Trains locations to commence the next job.
The other half of their time is spent driving, with up to 2,000 passengers in their train. The train’s operation is never completely automatic. This is referred to as Footplate time, and includes where they turn around a train - which requires drivers to change ends.
Sydney Trains always has crews on standby, so they can respond to changing circumstances on the network. Only in the rare instance they are not utilised would their footplate time be zero.
So in an eight-hour shift, roughly half of that would be spend driving.
Drivers are also not paid to commute between home and work.
‘This is extortion’
Transport for NSW lists the current average salary of a Sydney Trains driver as $128,196, including overtime and allowances – putting them in the top 20 per cent of income earners in Australia.
If union demands are met, projected figures released by radio station 2GB claim that train drivers could take home close to $200,000 by 2029.
Train drivers will earn $157,081 in the first year of the agreement; 12 months later, their pay will be bumped up to $170,408, before jumping again to $184,040 in the third year.
By the fourth year, drivers would reportedly take home an eye-watering $198,764.
The projected pay increase sparked outrage online, with many labelling the demand a “joke” and “extortion”.
“That is what paramedics, nurses and police officer salaries should look like. Not train drivers,” one person wrote.
“They drive trains. They are not pilots. Surely there are an abundance of people who would be willing and able to drive trains for the current salary,” businessman and expelled NSW Liberal executive member Matthew Camenzulli wrote on X.
“It is truly insane. This is extortion.”
Industrial action halted
Industrial action, which has crippled Sydney in recent days, was suspended in a late move on Thursday before further legal action between the NSW Government and unions.
Ahead of a formal hearing at the end of next week, the Fair Work Commission issued an interim order stopping unions from disrupting train services.
The application, under Section 424, empowers the Commission to intervene in protected industrial action if it is found to endanger life, personal safety or health, or welfare of people or cause significant damage to the Australian economy or parts of it.
After hearing submissions from the Combined Rail Unions and Sydney Trains, Fair Work Commission president Alan Hatcher said it would not be practicable to have the legal challenge determined within five days, which is required under legislation.
As a result, a mandatory interim order putting on hold protected industrial action had to be made, Mr Hatcher said.
Government has ‘done everything we possibly can’
NSW Premier Chris Minns said on Thursday his government is seeking an urgent outcome to end the widescale industrial disruption that have affected hundreds of thousands of people.
“We’ve done everything we possibly can to get an agreement with the rail unions – they’ve continued to hold out,” Mr Minns told reporters.
Ongoing negotiations would have been fine had public transport outages not impacted “nearly every family in Sydney”.
“But when the union says negotiations, what they really mean is that they’re going to continue to put a noose around the public transport system while demanding more and more and more money from the NSW government,” Mr Minns said.
The Premier said the decision was not one made lightly, but called it “appropriate” under the circumstances.
“I think any reasonable person will look at the course of the last few months and see the government has bent over backwards to get a good, fair outcome for rail workers in NSW, but endless industrial action that smashes the NSW economy and makes life unbearable for families in NSW is intolerable and cannot go on.”
The RTBU hit back at the government’s move, with a statement from the union branding it “nothing more than a desperate attempt to shift the blame for its own failure to negotiate with workers”.
“If the NSW government truly cared about its essential workers — whether it’s nurses, psychiatrists, or rail workers — it would have come to the table long ago with a fair offer for these important workforces,” the RTBU statement read.
“The workers of NSW are asking for basic, fair wages, safer conditions, and job security — nothing extravagant, just what they deserve. The longer the government refuses to take this seriously, the longer this dispute will drag on.”
– with NCA NewsWire
Originally published as How much train drivers actually work
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