A chaotic two-day shutdown of Sydney’s train network has been averted at the 11th hour after the state government caved to rail union demands to run 24-hour services to prevent workers striking.
However, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, has warned that despite securing a two-week hiatus on industrial action amid tense negotiations with rail unions over a new pay deal, there is no guarantee that the threat of a city-wide rail shutdown will not recur in a fortnight.
“We believe that there’s enough good faith in the room to get that agreement in a short space of time, and the government and unions have committed to that. We’re hopeful that we can have a breakthrough in that very soon,” Minns said.
Some train lines will still partially close for trackwork in the city’s west, with buses replacing trains on Saturday and Sunday on parts of the T2, T3, T5, T6, T8 and southern highlands lines. Part of the metro will still close for unrelated maintenance on Saturday and Sunday.
However, metro services will run more often on Friday, while extra light rail services and additional special event trains and buses to Olympic Park for Pearl Jam’s concert will run on Saturday.
Sydney train services had been set to stop running early on Friday morning and resume on Sunday morning, as part of a Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) work ban amid protracted negotiations with the government over a new pay deal and improved conditions.
However, last-ditch talks between Minns, his transport minister, Jo Haylen, the RTBU secretary Toby Warnes and various other union heads led to an agreement that will see the unions call off the strike that was set to affect all train services in the Sydney city network over a busy two-day period.
As part of the deal, the NSW government has agreed to the union’s demand to run 24-hour services, which will begin on Thursday on select lines and ramp up on Friday and Saturday evenings to cover more of the network. The exact extent of overnight services is not yet clear, but Minns said the government would work to run as many as possible.
The union is using the 24-hour service as a way to pressure the government into giving it a better pay deal without frustrating the public.
The last-minute agreement means this coming period will be the second consecutive weekend in which the NSW government will run trains nonstop throughout the night, with the demand for 24-hour services becoming the union’s bargaining chip to force action on the wider improved pay and conditions deal it is seeking from the government.
Sydney trains typically stop running services between about midnight and 4am.
However, when announcing it had averted the strike on Thursday afternoon, Minns and Haylen repeated the claim they made last week, saying the state could not sustain 24-hour services in the long term due to maintenance and other worker conditions.
The government has agreed to run 24-hour services in exchange for the unions dropping 109 various industrial bans from Monday for a period of two weeks, with both parties agreeing to use the fortnight as an “intensive bargaining” period.
The government had previously said it could not run 24-hour services this weekend due to scheduled maintenance, but Haylen said because contradictory industrial action planned for next week limiting worker availability had now been scrapped, the demand for 24-services over the weekend could be accommodated.
Warnes, the RTBU secretary, said the union had long called for round-the-clock services, arguing the government should “provide Sydney with 24-hour transport like it deserves as a global city”.
Haylen said the union’s agreement to lift other industrial actions would make it possible to run constant services, though she had previously argued regular running would “squeeze the life” out of the train system, which the union disputed.
“We’ve always said that’s not true,” Warnes said. “We believe the government should continue to run 24-hour services.”
Warnes said negotiations would not have reached the point they had without the premier’s intervention, which opposition leader Mark Speakman said amounted to “a vote of no confidence in Minister Haylen”.
“This government and premier should have been at the bargaining table from the word go, rather than saying that intensive bargaining starts today,” Speakman said. “It shouldn’t have been necessary to have a backflip in the first place.”
Light rail and metro services would not have been affected by the ban, as their workers were not part of the pay dispute at the centre of the strike, but weekend maintenance for part of the metro line would have shuttered the line as an alternative option.
The rail unions have taken hundreds of industrial actions since September as they negotiate with the government over pay and conditions for about 14,000 train workers.
The RTBU has demanded a 32% pay rise over four years, or 8% a year, while the government has offered a three-year agreement totalling 9.5% plus super.
