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Statement from the RTBU: NSW Government’s legal action is a smokescreen for its failure to bargain in good faith

16 January 2025

The NSW Government’s latest legal move, applying under Section 424 of the Fair Work Act to stop protected industrial action, is nothing more than a desperate attempt to shift the blame for its own failure to negotiate with workers.

For 44 days, the government has failed to engage in a single bargaining meeting with the Combined Rail Unions. That’s 44 days of inaction, while the NSW government continues to drag its feet and refuse to negotiate in good faith.

If the NSW Government truly cared about its essential workers- whether it’s nurses, psychiatrists, or rail workers- it would have come to the table long ago with a fair offer for these important workforces. Instead, it engages in cheap political tricks designed at achieving headlines, pays law firms top dollar to bring bogus legal cases, and anything else it can to avoid sitting at the bargaining table.

Now, instead of negotiating, the government is scapegoating rail workers, blaming them for economic disruption they themselves caused. The real cost to the economy isn’t the industrial action—it’s the government’s refusal to negotiate a fair deal.

The workers of NSW are asking for basic, fair wages, safer conditions, and job security- nothing extravagant, just what they deserve. The longer the government refuses to take this seriously, the longer this dispute will drag on.

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