Union head and Liberal minister agree umpire powerless to solve rail dispute

The head of the union movement and the NSW Liberal minister overseeing the drawn-out trains dispute both say the federal workplace umpire lacks the teeth to resolve the industrial stand-off.

ACTU secretary Sally McManus found herself in unlikely agreement with Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope over the powerlessness of the Fair Work Commission in the face of the stalemate that has affected thousands of Sydney commuters.

Sally McManus, Secretary of the ACTU, wants a discussion about casuals receiving sick pay.Credit: Eddie Jim

“This dispute has gone on for so long because the umpire ... is mainly a bystander, only allowed to assist in very limited circumstances or to enact the nuclear option of cancelling agreements which only benefit one side,” McManus told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

Tudehope backed McManus, saying the commission had “no real powers” to settle the bargaining dispute through arbitration, adding it was all but redundant in the industrial battle. However, the solutions of the two differed.

McManus said the dispute between the NSW government and the powerful Rail, Tram and Bus Union was a “classic example” for giving the industrial umpire, the Fair Work Commission, greater powers to intervene in wage negotiations.

“I think the key thing that needs to change is we need to give the umpire their whistle back, the Fair Work Commission has had their whistle taken off them,” McManus said. Following the jobs summit, the government promised to give Fair Work the greater capacity to help workers and businesses reach agreements.

NSW Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope has found common ground with the head of the national union movement.Credit: Oscar Colman

Tudehope, however, said he wanted the Commonwealth to allow the return of Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink and other government corporations to the jurisdiction of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission, which has the ability to arbitrate.

The state government has for months been at loggerheads with the combined rail unions over a new pay deal and the future of an intercity train fleet that workers refuse to staff due to safety concerns.

The long-running dispute has resulted in sporadic strikes and industrial action across Sydney’s rail network, prompting NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet earlier this month to warn he would tear up an existing enterprise agreement if any more action was taken.

McManus also backed the use of industrial action in helping workers negotiate multi-employer agreements, adding “if workers have no access to protected action, bargaining power is reduced to almost zero.”

Australian Industry Group chief executive said, “the demand today by the ACTU secretary Sally McManus that workers need the unfettered right to strike in support of new multi-employer pay claims would take Australia back to the industrial chaos of the past,” a claim McManus dismissed as a “scare campaign”.

On multi-employer bargaining, the ability for workers to negotiate across businesses, McManus said, “you want bargaining to be quick, you want it to be simple, you want it to be fair, and you want it to be accessible.”

She said parts of the better off overall test, the legal threshold to make sure workers don’t go backwards in negotiations, was in parts “too technical and time-consuming” and suggested the test was being applied too strictly.

Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry head Andrew McKellar said, “the message from Sally McManus and the ACTU today is clear. The trade union movement wants to run your business”.

“And if you don’t play by their rules, you will be hauled off to the Commission where it’s one-size-fits-all. This is not opt-in,” he said.

McManus also said she wanted a national discussion on casual workers receiving sick pay, although the movement’s priority was to ensure permanent workers mischaracterised as casuals were receiving their proper entitlements.

Isolation rules for COVID-affected Australians will be on the agenda at a national cabinet meeting on Friday after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last fortnight confirmed workers without leave entitlements would continue to receive government payments for as long as they were required to stay home.

“The question then about, well, there’s still going to be some people left without that. I think there is a bigger discussion that we absolutely would like to have with the community on whether our current settings are correct on that,” McManus said, adding there were other entitlements that should be discussed.

“I think there’s a bigger, longer discussion to be had about the issue of so many people not having sick leave.”

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