Sydney commuters have been told to avoid rail travel and instead book taxis or rideshares, as the state government warned a “sneak strike” that led to a quarter of all morning trains being cancelled would result in worse evening disruptions.
Pay negotiations between the New South Wales government and rail unions broke down again on Thursday night before the treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, blasted the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) on Friday over its demand for a $4,500 bonus payment.
The government said the bonus – the final hurdle in the pay deal – would cost the state $60m.
At about 5pm, the Fair Work Commission heard an urgent application from the government attempting to quash industrial action.
The commission subsequently made a recommendation to the RTBU to withdraw their action, which the union is not required to comply with. Both parties are set to return to the commission on Saturday to hear the matter further. The RTBU was contacted for comment.
More than 90% of morning peak services were either cancelled or delayed on Friday. By 1.30pm, more than 800 services had been cancelled across all lines, with the T2 Leppington and Inner West and T8 Airport and South lines hardest hit. There were cascading delays across the network, with 396 not running to time.
By 2pm, when a key roster period began, 576 train drivers and guards hadn’t turned up to work – including a “big uptick” in sick leave at rates not seen since the height of Covid.
Disruptions were likely to worsen throughout the afternoon and evening, said Matt Longland, chief executive of Sydney Trains.
Longland said buses were shuttling travellers from Central station to the airport, but suggested as an alternative catching the metro to Sydenham and then taking a taxi or Uber. The metro is operated separately and was unaffected by industrial action.
In response to the government refusing the one-off bonus – which had not been aired by the government or unions in nine months of negotiations but which the RTBU assumed would carry over from a previous agreement – the union ramped up work stoppages which had already been planned for Friday.
Mookhey said the union was “gaslighting Sydney” and the suggestion the government had issued a staff lockout was false. Instead, so-called 471 notices had been issued to employees stating they would be docked pay if they performed reduced duties as part of protected industrial actions.
“I have seen some of the communications from the union. I do want to say that I think the union is gaslighting Sydney,” Mookhey said.
The 2023 bonus was included as a one-off payment to cover missed back pay, the government said.
At the centre of the latest disagreement is a demand for a $4,500 bonus – a sweetener rail unions secured with the previous Coalition government.
A NSW government spokesperson said the unions had requested the bonus “at the last hour” of negotiations on Thursday night. Mookhey said the unions had not raised continuing the payment once in their log of claims during months of negotiations.
But Toby Warnes, the secretary of the RTBU, called that claim “completely untrue”.
Warnes said the bonus payment was “an existing entitlement contained within the last enterprise agreement” and “nothing new at all”.
The RTBU claimed the NSW government had not raised the bonus payment or attempted to remove it from the new deal during months of negotiations.
The government, however, insisted the bonus payment in the previous 2023 agreement was a one-off initiative – and not automatically continued into the next deal.
Former coalition transport minister David Elliott, who was minister when the bonus was negotiated, confirmed the government’s understanding, telling 2GB radio on Friday the payment was a one-off for back pay.
Warnes on Friday defended leaked communications reportedly from an RTBU convener on Thursday night telling members “let’s fuck the network up”.
The union chief said he had not authorised the message or told workers not to go to work. Warnes said members were frustrated. “You’ve got a government that’s treated [them] very poorly for the past five months,” he said.
Friday’s actions were the latest wave of disruptions from has been a nine-month period in which combined rail unions and the state government have failed to agree on a new pay deal.
The unions’ initial demands were for a 32% pay rise over four years. The government’s most recent offer was 15% over four years – a base 13% figure plus a 1% rise from efficiency gains and 1% in superannuation.
– with Australian Associated Press
