Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink drivers will go on strike for 24 hours on Monday, January 29, as part of an ongoing pay dispute with the NSW Government.
The Rail, Tram and Bus Union is negotiating with the State Government over a new, four-year enterprise agreement to cover drivers in NSW.
Earlier this week the union said drivers would begin wearing union apparel at work, and would impose a ban on overtime from January 5.
Now the RTBU has stepped up its action, announcing commuters will be hit with a 24-hour strike on January 29.
The dispute centres around union’s request for a 6% per annum pay rise to be written into the new deal. The NSW Government is refusing to budge from its 2.5% offer.
RTBU NSW secretary Alex Claassens said management and the State Government were treating workers in a “terrible way”.
“There’s never an ideal time to take this kind of action, but the reality is, we have to,” Claassens said on Tuesday.
“We are confident that commuters will understand that the NSW transport minister and Sydney and NSW Trains management are ultimately responsible for this action. They could put a stop to this any time, simply by coming back to the negotiating table with a fair agreement.”
NSW transport minister Andrew Constance has rejected the union’s arguments, saying the union is being manipulative.
“We’re just wanting to roll the existing agreement over, with all the allowances, and all the entitlements,” Constance said this week.
“We’re not wanting to change it; in fact we’re including more leave entitlements as part of the agreement. We’re saying to the union you can have a pay rise of 2.5% per annum, without any productivity improvements, and yet they’ve come along and said no, we want 24% [over four years].”
Constance criticised the union’s behaviour, labelling it “a cynical attempt in the dark arts of union activism”. The minister said the union was threatening the livelihood of its members through its actions.
“Don’t play with the livelihood of the train drivers,” he said.
“The drivers themselves are going to be hit in the hip pocket as a result of the overtime taken away, which is what the union’s [doing].”