Sydney commuters have been warned to avoid non-urgent rail travel on Friday amid delays and hundreds of service cancellations, as a pay negotiations between the train unions and state government grinds to a halt.
The state transport minister, John Graham, said the network was in the midst of a major disruption. “We’ve had more than 350 services cancelled this morning and that is having a big impact across the network,” he told Sydney radio 2GB on Friday.
A NSW government spokesperson said that the unions had requested a $4,500 bonus payment for every rail worker “at the last hour” of extensive negotiations. But Toby Warnes, secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union NSW (RTBU), later called the claim “completely untrue”.
“After extensive negotiations over the last few days the unions at the last hour asked for a $4500 bonus payment for every rail worker. This was never part of our offer, nor was it in the union’s counter offer,” the government spokesperson said in a Friday morning statement.
“As a result the union has instructed drivers not to show up to work today.”
But Warnes said the payment was “an existing entitlement contained within the enterprise agreement” – and “nothing new at all”.
“Claims from the NSW Government that rail workers threw an extra payment into the mix are completely untrue.”
The RTBU had warned on Thursday night that trains would run 23km/hr slower than usual in areas where the speed limit is over 80km/hr, as part of protected industrial action.
Warnes told a press conference on Friday morning that delays across the network were “entirely attributable to the government issuing, last Friday, 5,000 individual lockout notices to train crew workers” across the state.
The notices were intended to take effect Wednesday, he said, and postponed by the government at midnight in efforts to reach an agreement – then took effect again overnight on Thursday “after negotiations fell over”.
“So we have workers who are either showing up today and risking not getting paid by the government, or we have workers who have chosen not to attend work today because of those lockout notices.”
“No one can predict the level of disruption that this is going to cause,” he added when asked how long delays might last.
The NSW government spokesperson said “we have a fair and reasonable pay offer on the table”.
“We can’t say yes to rail unions and no to nurses.”
They said the government was looking at “all our options including urgent legal action”.
Talks on the new enterprise agreement continue ahead of the next Fair Work Commission hearing on Monday, Transport for NSW said in a media release.
They said yesterday that train union member drivers may operate trains at reduced speed “however, a normal train timetable will continue to operate”.
“While we expect minimal disruption, the consequences of industrial action can be unpredictable.”
– with Australian Associated Press
