The Fair Work Commission has rocked Australia’s industrial relations playing field, ordering the rail union to abandon plans to strike across the Sydney and NSW rail networks next Monday.
Sydney was preparing for a full day without passenger rail on Monday, January 29, after the Rail, Tram and Bus Union announced a 24-hour strike on Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink networks.
But the national industrial relations arbiter, the Fair Work Commission, announced on Thursday that such a strike “threatens to endanger the welfare of the population,” and ordered the RTBU to call off all industrial action.
A union-directed ban on overtime, which began on Thursday morning and has led to over 1,000 services being cancelled, will continue until 6pm tonight, but must then be suspended for six weeks, the FWC ordered.
The ruling came as NSW Government lawyers argued a Monday strike could cost the state’s economy as much as $90 million.
FWC senior deputy president Jonathan Hamberger subsequently ruled the strike threatened to endanger the community, including those who rely on the network to get to school or work.
A disappointed RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens ruled out an illegal strike, saying the union would adhere to the FWC’s ruling.
“Of course we will always adhere to Fair Work Commission rulings, but a much quicker resolution to this would be for the transport minister to simply come to the table with a fair and reasonable agreement for the workforce,” Claassens said.
“Commuters and workers deserve a quick resolution to this. The transport minister can deliver that simply by coming to the table with a reasonable offer.
“Workers don’t want to be in this position. We just want to get back to doing what we do best – keeping our trains moving – but we can’t sit back and let our transport services and wages and conditions continue to be attacked.”
Quoted by the ABC, NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the FWC ruling was a “huge relief”.
“Now we have certainty,” the premier was quoted as saying. “I’m urging everybody from today to restore good faith, maintain good faith, in all negotiations moving forward. I have been concerned that the union movement did not withdraw the strike action – we gave them every opportunity to do that.”
Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink bosses are still in negotiation talks with the Rail, Tram and Bus Union over the enterprise agreement at the centre of the dispute.
NSW transport minister Andrew Constance says the conditions of the state’s offer to workers are unchanged from previous deals.
But the union is arguing the new Sydney timetable has effectively damaged the working conditions of drivers and staff around the network, with an increased demand on an already stretched workforce.
The sides are also arguing over the percentage pay rise which will be included in the four-year deal, with the union asking for 6%, but the state offering between 2.5% and 3%.