Federal Court case update – the NSW Labor Government is trying to destroy the bargaining system

16 December 2024

Dear members,

Despite entering government with a mandate to better engage with its public sector workforce and preaching the benefits of interest based bargaining, the NSW Labor government relied today on a novel interpretation of the Fair Work Act to circumvent workers’ rights to take protected industrial action.

The NSW government’s approach is entirely inconsistent with the intention of changes to the Fair Work Act introduced by their Federal Labor counterparts, which includes new rights to multi-employer bargaining. Instead, the Minns Labor government has manipulated the changes to stymie bargaining and prevent workers from exercising their legal right to take industrial action during bargaining.

The Minns Government’s actions in Court today are another example of the NSW government’s attempts to curtail and squash the rights of workers to take protected industrial action, putting unlimited power into the hands of employers.

The thrust of the government’s argument is that if an employer unilaterally decides to change the scope of an agreement (i.e. what workers or employers it covers), then any protected action ballot made would be rendered invalid instantly, and a new ballot would have to be conducted. Workers would then be liable for penalties for action take after that moment in time. This is what the Minns Government is asking the Court to decide.

This is not only a direct assault on the RTBU and other combined rail unions, but also an attack on every union and worker in Australia. For a government that purports to stand for working people, to seek to destroy a system which has only just emerged and that gives us all a chance at better wages and working conditions, is a deadset insult.