Sydney Trains and NSW Trains Bargaining Meeting
3 July 2024
Dear Members,
Today, we had a further bargaining meeting with Sydney Trains and NSW Trains management. We finally began explaining our log and your EA delegates spoke to a number of important claims.
One of our delegates gave a passionate explanation of why our pay claim was not only reasonable in the current circumstances, but necessary. Our claim is not only 8% for each year of the agreement, but also for a “sunset” pay rise which applies on the last day of the agreement. This is important and protects us against the delays we’ve seen over many years in commencing bargaining.
In some good news, there were quite a few YES responses in the afternoon to several of our claims, many of which were fervently opposed in the last round of bargaining by management.
1. Pay claim – our delegates detailed their ongoing concerns about the increased cost of living as one of the reasons for the 8% claim. Management’s position was that it is not in line with Government policy and cannot be accepted at this stage.
2. Superannuation to be paid every pay day – management agreed to insert a clause into the Agreement to protect this right into the future.
3. Salary sacrifice options – we advocated that members should have their own choice of provider and the ability to sacrifice beyond novated leases. Management is going to seek tax advice on this and come back to the table with what they can do.
4. Payroll issues – this issue was a major theme through our log of claims survey earlier in the year. We had a serious and long discussion about the issues experienced by members with payroll. Every delegate from every union in the room was affected by these issues. We pushed for the function to be brought back in house and for a penalty to be paid if a pay is wrong. Management are going to urgently escalate this issue to TSS and come back to us about bringing it back into Sydney Trains again.
5. Redundancy Deed incorporation into the Agreement and uncapping amount of weeks – management are making enquiries as to whether, under legislation, they can insert the deed into the agreement. Management said that the claim to increase the amount payable under the Deed from 3 to 4 weeks per year of service was a big cost increase and needed to be escalated to Government.
6. Incorporate the 68K agreement into the Enterprise Agreement – this was agreed by management.
7. 35-hour work week – we argued that people are more productive when their hours are reduced but their pay is not. We used Transport for NSW as an example of a place already with a 35 hour week. Management were sceptical about the potential for a productivity increase and asked for more information on the issue. They said they remain to be convinced on this claim.
8. ADOs accrual increase to 10 days and Public Holidays accrual increase to 12 days – management agreed to these claims.
9. Working into and out of a public holiday – we argued that members should receive public holiday rates for the entire shift if any part of it falls on a public holiday. Management are considering the issue and will come back to us.
10. Fixing book off day rostering – we argued that all book off days needed to be a clear 24 hour period. There was genuine surprise in the room that this doesn’t already occur, and management are going to come back to us next meeting.
11. Adjoining public holiday medical certificate requirement – we argued that shift workers should no longer have to provide a medical certificate for a day off after a public holiday if they worked the adjoining public holiday. Management agreed to this claim.
12. Enshrine a right into the enterprise agreement take accrued public holidays alongside annual leave – management agreed to this claim.
13. Annual Leave:
a. Our claim is to increase all annual leave entitlements by 1 week (5 weeks for non-shift work, 6 weeks for shift work).
b. Increase leave loading to 20% or average pay, whichever is higher.
Management said that this needed to be taken back to the government.
14. Pay out 20% of sick leave at end of employment – management are taking this away and coming back next meeting although they expressed concerns about the risk of this causing people not to take sick leave when they are sick.
It was great to see so many members turnout to our BBQ at Old TCAC today. Many people we spoke with had not yet voted in our majority support vote. If you haven’t yet voted, please ensure that you do so as soon as possible.
In unity,
RTBU NSW