The Rail, Tram and Bus Union says progress was made last Friday in enterprise agreement talks between it and Transport for NSW, but plans are still in place for drivers to strike across the state on January 29.
The RTBU is engaged in an ongoing enterprise agreement dispute with Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink, with a deal to cover rail workers for the next four years.
The union is asking for a 6% per annum pay rise to be worked into the deal, while the state has said it is only offering 2.5% per annum.
It is unknown if any progress was made specific to those offers at Friday’s meeting, but RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens said the meeting was “constructive”.
“Today’s discussions were positive, but there’s still more work to do,” Claassens said on Friday. “All parties have agreed to continue to work over the weekend and to meet again on Monday in an attempt to resolve this dispute.”
Classens says the union has been doing “everything we can” to resolve the dispute.
“It’s about time the minister finally come to the table in an attempt to negotiate the genuine and reasonable agreement workers deserve,” the union boss said.
“While the discussions today were positive, we don’t yet have an offer on the table that will provide workers with the fair wages and conditions they deserve.
“As a result, the overtime ban scheduled to begin on Thursday 25 January and the 24-hour stoppage planned for Monday 29 January, at this stage, will still go ahead.”
He concluded: “That said, we’re very hopeful that the Minister will come to the table with a fair and reasonable offer that can be put to the workers before then so we don’t have to go down that path.”