Bargaining update – intensive bargaining continues 

Yesterday, bargaining kicked off with working groups focused on station staff conditions and apprentice arrangements. We’re pleased to report that both groups achieved some positive initial outcomes.

While further work is required, these early steps indicate a commitment to addressing areas that have long been overlooked. It’s encouraging to see members’ concerns being heard, especially in the stations space, where upper management have historically shown little interest in addressing problems.

For stations, work will continue around:

• Assessing priority stations to ensure a safe place for staff, including the potential for garrisons.
• Classification improvements.
• Transfer arrangements.
• Genuine implementation of the Stations Rostering and Working Arrangements.
• Prioritisation of full-time positions and addressing misuse of part-time positions.

For apprentices, work has been moved into a dedicated Apprentice Steering Committee with a clear way forward to address many of the Combined Rail Union’s claims around better supporting these members.

In the second half of the day, your bargaining representatives returned to the negotiating table to continue advocating for members’ priority claims. We’re pleased to confirm that additional progress was made, with the following claims being supported in principle, pending drafting:

• Formal qualifications for training and assessing.
• Formal qualifications for more disciplines – Pending mapping of competencies.
• All Safety Critical training to be conducted face-to-face.
• Employee passes to cover all Opal services.
• Driver Trainer arrangements – compiled/improved and to be enshrined in DRAWA.

This morning, working groups reconvened as delegates tackled critical issues of vacancy management and secondments. It was immediately clear that this is a widespread problem across both Sydney and NSW Trains, and one unlikely to be resolved in just a single session. Participants worked through the most urgent concerns with representatives from Trains’ and have committed to reconvening to continue addressing these issues.

After the break, formal bargaining resumed with the addition of Transport Secretary, Josh Murray. Delegates seized the opportunity to raise many key issues from members’ wages to the ongoing incompetence of the Transport for NSW bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the Secretary’s address lacked the urgency we had hoped for, and bargaining representatives made it clear that genuine answers are expected the next time we’re in the room together.

As we take stock of the first week of intensive bargaining, it’s clear that members have made important gains and secured key claims. The goal now is to ensure that this momentum continues throughout the remainder of the process.

In the coming days, bargaining representatives will be out and about in depots and workplaces, so please take the opportunity to hear updates directly from those in the room before we return to the table next Tuesday.