NSW Government and rail union reach pay agreement

ABC NEWS (Australia)

A months-long stoush between the New South Wales government and rail unions appears to have come to an end. A proposed enterprise agreement will see staff receive a 12 percent pay rise over three years and backpay.

Transcript

00:00Initially, the combined rail unions were seeking a 32 per cent pay rise over four years back

00:07when negotiations started in late 2023, but that has come down significantly.

00:13At the start of the year, the parties were just 1 per cent apart, the government was

00:17offering 11 per cent, but it has now agreed to pay an extra 1 per cent so that the unions

00:23have struck a deal of 12 per cent over the next three years, plus back pay back to May

00:29last year when the previous deal came to an end.

00:33We saw industrial action late last year as negotiations broke down, which caused major

00:39headaches for commuters, many delays and cancellations.

00:43And then there was also a legal fight at the Fair Work Commission, which resulted in the

00:49tribunal effectively ordering a cooling off period, which meant that no industrial action

00:56could be taken until the 1st of July.

00:59But the breakthrough has taken place last week, where we saw major disruption as a result of

01:08a maintenance problem, you know, power lines falling on a train in the city's west.

01:14There was already a meeting scheduled between the union and the government last week, but

01:19it was against the backdrop of the problems of the network's reliability that really gave

01:26the parties the impetus to come together and finally seal this deal.

01:30We've heard some more this morning from the transport minister as well as union bosses about

01:36how they came to land this deal.

01:38Take a listen.

01:40One of the reasons this deal has landed is that we were 1% apart when it came to the

01:47February negotiations.

01:48The government's paid that full 1% to land this deal.

01:51We see that as a fair arrangement.

01:53It's an investment in reliability from my point of view.

01:56We need a more reliable train service in Sydney.

01:59And working with the workforce rather than fighting with them is one way to deliver that.

02:03The 32% figure came from a proposed four-year agreement, and it was in our initial log of

02:09claims.

02:10The nature of enterprise negotiations is that positions move and shift.

02:15There's much more to this deal than just pay.

02:17There's a number of really important safety improvements, a lot of working condition improvements

02:23that will go into it.

02:24And we're going to be out and about across the network explaining to our members over the

02:28course of the next few weeks what is actually contained in this deal.

02:31And as I said, we're extremely confident that once members and the 13,000 workers hear what

02:37we have to say, that they'll vote overwhelmingly yes for this deal.

02:41Alex, there does appear to be a sticking point, though, from one of the unions.

02:45What can you tell us about that?

02:49Yes, there's one outstanding clause that the Electrical Trades Union hasn't agreed to.

02:54This clause relates to conditions specific for its workers.

02:59The Fair Work Commission has made recommendations designed to find a way to reach agreement on

03:06this issue, with the government given a deadline of Monday to respond.

03:11The transport minister is confident that they will be able to iron out this issue such that

03:17it doesn't hold up the rest of the agreement.

03:20the Fair Work Commission is provided by the law of the United States, which the

03:23Americans have led to the law of the UNRAC itself to install.

03:26The founder of the UNRAC was chilli-ly allowed, and also was the founder of the UNRAC in the

03:29Ecarus.

03:29The UNRAC was called the UNRAC was made to the UNRAC production.

03:30The owner of the UNRAC, was created by the UNRAC.

03:32The UNRAC was created by the UNRAC that was created by the UNRAC.

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