Sydney Trains and NSW Trains Bargaining: Government pay announcement – what does it mean?

20 May 2024

Dear Members,

This morning the NSW Government made an announcement that it would offer public sector workers a 10.5% pay rise over 3 years.

It must be noted however that the 10.5% increase includes mandatory superannuation increases scheduled for 2024 and 2025, meaning that the actual pay rise would be 9.5% over 3 years (3.5%, 3% and 3%).

This offer came out of the blue and it isn’t clear exactly which union it was directed at. We didn’t receive any correspondence from the government regarding this offer despite being promised something would be coming for weeks.

As today went on, it became clear that this offer was not directed at rail workers at all, but rather toward workers who are in the state industrial relations system.

Nevertheless, as was the case with the wages cap under the previous Liberal Government, any offer on wages is just a bargaining position of management as we operate in the Federal Industrial Relations System. However, it does give us a baseline on which we can bargain up from.

The one positive for us from this announcement is that it is now highly likely that Sydney Trains and NSW Trains will be given their bargaining parameters and bargaining will commence imminently.

We have been ready to bargain now for months and your EA delegates are ready to go. Make sure you keep an eye on your emails for further updates in the coming days.  

In Unity

RTBU NSW