The workers at Sydney Trains have been locked in an ongoing battle with the company and the NSW Government for months in their pursuit of a new EBA with decent wages and conditions. During negotiations Sydney Trains has consistently offered up substandard EBA offers, with the latest offer stripping back integral safety clauses and watering down consultation rights for workers. Sydney Trains is now holding over 100 previously agreed upon clauses to ransom unless unions agree to its new unsafe proposals.
Members have rallied, marched on parliament house, participated in rolling stoppages and taken as much protected industrial action (PIA) as possible, demanding that Sydney Trains and the NSW Government come back to the table to negotiate and put forth an offer that does not compromise the safety of the workers and provides decent wages and conditions.
Meetings between the company and the ETU have stagnated. Sydney Trains has consistently used every trick in the book to strangle the workers’ right to engage in PIA. It has been playing legal games for months, spending huge fees on lawyers, then crying poor when the workers ask for a fair raise to keep up with the cost of living. This behaviour raises serious concerns about Sydney Trains’ genuine desire to resolve this dispute. In February, after several prior attempts to remove the workers’ rights to PIA, The NSW and Sydney Trains successfully won a suspension of all industrial action through the Fair Work Commission until 1 July.
But the mighty ETU is pushing back as hard as it can. The members have shown a united front and strength during bargaining have not given up. The ETU has now applied to the Federal Court for a review of this decision, which will be heard at an initial hearing on 7th of March.
“The Fair Work Commission fundamentally failed to take into account the interests of all bargaining representatives and as such the ETU has applied to the Federal Court for a review this disgraceful decision,” said ETU NSW/ACT Secretary Allen Hicks.
“Sydney Trains and the NSW State Government have demonstrated they are not willing to negotiate with unions in a meaningful way unless they are facing the pressure of protected industrial action. It was simply another opportunity for Sydney Trains and the Minns Government to kick the can further down the road and continue to treat workers with contempt.”
Despite all the games and underhanded tactics used by Sydney Trains, the workers have not given up. The members have shown they will not accept clauses that could jeopardise their safety. This EBA campaign is about more than dollars, it is about workers’ rights to be consulted on new clauses, and ensuring those clauses do not diminish safety standards. Everyone deserves the right to be safe at work and the ETU will not back down on that. The mighty ETU is not going to shy away from this blue.