Final bid to prevent $100m Sydney rail strike

The industrial umpire will rule today on whether a Sydney-wide train strike proceeds.

Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Alex Claassens. Picture: James Croucher

The industrial umpire will rule today on whether a Sydney-wide train strike proceeds and plunges the nation’s biggest city into transport chaos tipped to force hundreds of thousands of workers to stay home and cost the economy $100 million.

The hit to the national economy is a key argument being mounted by the NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance and Industrial Relations Minister Dominic Perrottet, who are asking that special powers in the Fair Work Act be invoked to stop the action, which begins today with overtime bans and threatens to stop the network on Monday.

Mr Perrottet’s legal argument also revolves around the potential risk to lives because of overcrowded train platforms during the bans and the inability of emergency service vehicles to travel on clogged roads during the rail shutdown.

The 320,000-strong NSW public service and some of the nation’s biggest companies began ordering non-essential staff to stay home ahead of the overtime bans today.

Monday’s strike action hinges on four hours of deliberations in the Fair Work Commission this morning at which Sydney Trains management will push for orders to outlaw the union’s industrial action.

Mr Constance and Rail Tram and Bus Union secretary Alex Claassens will also hold last-ditch talks this morning in a bid to head off the full 24-hour rail strike on Monday.

From today, the union’s industrial campaign over pay and conditions will force the Sydney train network onto Saturday rosters that will essentially halve the number of services by cancelling 1300 trains and inconvenience 1.3 million travellers.

In a hearing late yesterday, FWC deputy president Jonathan Hamberger rejected a request to impose the order outlawing the industrial action last night, but said he would make a decision about noon today after giving union lawyers time to examine 200 pages of documents submitted by Sydney Trains.

In evidence, director of services planning Antony Croning said Sydney Trains needed at least four days’ notice to schedule all services — but he would have preferred to have notice by last night to guarantee the full operation of the timetable on Monday if the strike did not proceed.

Mr Croning confirmed that only 50 per cent of services would run from today with the imposition of overtime bans. Further cuts would apply on Saturday, he said, because trains would need to be removed from the normal schedule and diverted to special events attracting high numbers of passengers.

The action went ahead after union members rejected a 2.75 per cent pay rise each year over three years plus a $1000 bonus offered by the government as a compromise on Tuesday night.

Mr Claassens was forced to admit that the rejection came after an “imperfect” process of the union sending a text message poll to members asking whether the strike should be called off. Some of the union’s 6000 members ­reported not getting the message.

Just 362 — or 5.93 per cent of members — texted a “Yes” to calling off the strike, on the basis of the government’s 2.75 per cent pay rise offer. But Mr Claassens admitted only “a couple” had ­texted back “No”. A failure to ­respond was recorded by the union as a “no” vote.

On Tuesday night, the union had said it had a “reasonable” offer to put to members. It included free private and public transport for rail workers.

But Mr Claassens announced yesterday the membership had found otherwise.

Mr Constance called the poll illegitimate. “It’s disappointing the deal struck with the unions last night is not going to be honoured by the rail union,” he said.

“I don’t think group-texting is a legitimate way to understand the views of the workforce. What we had was (what) the delegates agreed. It’s a disappointment it’s not being honoured.”

Ahead of his meetings with Mr Claassens, Mr Constance said he was “perplexed as to what it is they really want”. Mr Claassens admitted he should have conducted the survey of his members differently. “We don’t have a mechanism for calling off action that’s perfect and I tried to everything I could,” he said. “I’m not saying it was a perfect straw poll. I did the best I could do with the circumstances. You tell me how I can do it better.”

While a formal Australian Electoral Commission ballot had brought on the strike, a text message poll was used in an attempt to call it off. As the industrial action loomed, businesses large and small warned of dire effects.

“There’s no doubt that if the strike proceeds, it will have significant economic impact to Sydney and the broader economy,” the Sydney Business Chamber’s chief executive, Patricia Forsythe, said. “We believe that it could be the value of more than $100 million. The general message that we have heard from business is people who can work from home will but overwhelmingly that’s not (viable). The real impact will be in our service-based economy.

“About 10 per cent of Sydney workers use trains ... most in the CBD won’t be (able to work). there’s no parking availability.”

A spokesman for the Commonwealth Bank said of its preparation for today and Monday: “As one of the country’s leading employers, we have flexible working policies that allow our people to shape their schedules while meeting work priorities.”

A Westpac spokesman said its priority “will be to mitigate any disruption to our customers and to ensure that our employees have safe alternatives” to coming to the workplace. A NSW government spokesman confirmed that non-essential workers who relied on rail transport would be told to work from home.

Additional reporting: Olivia Caisley