Good Faith Bargaining Order Application Filed
17 January 2025
It was a disappointing night tonight with the Fair Work Commission ordering a suspension of our industrial action. Not because of any real reason about the industrial action itself, but because it decided it logistically could not hear the case in the mandated 5 day period.
This demonstrates just how broken our system really is.
If you haven’t already, pop over to the Facebook pages of the Transport Minister and the Premier and make your dissatisfaction know. The Government’s behaviour has been properly appalling and rail workers won’t quickly forget. Visit the Transport Minister here: https://www.facebook.com/jo.haylen, or the Premier here: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisMinnsMP.
Nevertheless, tonight in response to this reprehensible action by the NSW Government, we filed an application in the Commission for Good Faith Bargaining Orders. This application has been a long time coming and alleges that the Government has not been bargaining in good faith, the entire time. The Government has, for the past two bargains failed to bargain in good faith, and this time it has gotten worse with them refusing to even sit at the bargaining table with us – something they have not done now for over 44 days.
We are all doing every thing we can to bring this bargain to a close, with fair pay and conditions that we all deserve. But its hard to negotiate with yourself. The Government needs to come back to the table, and this application will hopefully force them to do that.
We’re all hurting right now, and that’s understandable. Stay strong and don’t let the bastards get you down.