NSW and Sydney Trains bargaining update

17 October 2024

Dear Members,

The penultimate week of the intensive bargaining period commenced on Tuesday of this week as working groups reconvened to further progress discussions in the Infrastructure, Stations, Area Controller, Transport Officer, and Train Crew Technology space. These working groups played out in similar fashion to the last round. A productive dialog, but a distinct lack of outcomes making their way back into the barraging room to be permanently captured and protected within the Enterprise Agreement. There will always be a place for detailed working groups, but they cannot replace bargaining.

Day two was dedicated to “big room” bargaining where discussions focused on drafting and working through proposed EA clauses to support member’s claims. While clause drafting isn’t an exciting process, it is important work to ensure that entitlements won through the members conviction and actions are correctly captured in the new agreement.

Day three commenced with an address from Transport Secretary, Josh Murray, on topics including salary sacrifice options, payroll problems, disciplinary processes, matters relating to the Gold Pass, and workplace presence. The Secretary has obviously done some homework since his last trip to the bargaining room, being better prepared and providing a potential pathway to fix the constant problem of payroll.

Bargaining recommenced mid-morning with some additional member claims agreed to, including:

1. Agreement to provide regional drivers and on-boarders with special arrangements to deal with family emergencies if they are away from home.
2. Significant progress on a clause to lock in a mental health framework – this is subject to drafting, but we are very close.

Unfortunately, some important items are still yet to receive any form of support from the rail entities:

1. No agreement to sunset pay rise
2. No agreement to pay superannuation when on unpaid parental leave. However, the management bargaining team indicated they support this in-principle, but it needs broad Government support.
3. No agreement to uncap redundancy entitlement.
4. No agreement to pay overtime on the day.
5. No agreement to pay full public holiday penalties for shifts where portions fall on a public holiday.
6. No agreement to pay annual leave loading at average pay
7. No agreement to increase parental leave to 20 weeks.

An area of genuine concern observed during today’s bargaining was the employer’s eagerness to hide behind Government policy on any issue that could potentially impact a bargain in other sectors at some later stage. This position will not be accepted by bargaining representatives. Your delegates are at the table negotiating an agreement for Sydney and NSW Trains – twelve thousand hard working rail workers – not the whole transport sector and not the broader public sector. The employer’s attempt to portray our claims as financially catastrophic by using inflated cost projections across the “whole public sector” is misleading and a weak debating tactic.

CRU officials will once again meet with the Transport Minister tomorrow to report back on the state of this week’s meetings. It is safe to say that time is fast running out as we head into the last week of intensive bargaining. Trains’ will need to bring some genuine urgency to next week if they wish to avoid a return to protected industrial action as foreshadowed at the outset of the 4-week ceasefire.

In unity, 

RTBU NSW