Rail unions have warned industrial action could disrupt Sydney’s train network between Christmas and the new year after the state government secured a court injunction stopping action this week when pay negotiations collapsed.
The warning from the rail unions came after the Sydney train network suffered disruptions on Monday morning despite the federal court on Sunday night siding with the state government in granting the injunction.
The Minns government’s eleventh-hour push to seek legal orders barring industrial action occurred so late on Sunday that some impacts on the city’s train network could not be undone, because rostering could not be reorganised.
Authorities said more than 70% of services during the Monday morning peak period ran on time with minimal delays on parts of the network. Few disruptions were expected on Monday afternoon.
On Sunday afternoon, the New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, said a two-week period of “daily exhaustive” negotiations – which combined rail unions and the state government had agreed to enter to stave off a two-day strike across all Sydney train lines late last month – had not delivered a breakthrough.
Minns said the government could not agree to the rail unions’ pay demands at the same time as it was pushing against similar pay increases requested by the nurses’ and other unions.
As a result, the two-week moratorium on industrial action as part of the negotiation window was set to end, and the government asked the rail unions to pull their planned actions related to limits on how far drivers could travel each day.
When the union refused this request, the state government sought an eleventh-hour injunction at the federal court. A government spokesperson said that going to court to prevent the industrial action “was not a decision we took lightly”.
The court ultimately granted interim orders preventing the unions from taking the planned industrial action. A future hearing set by the court will now determine if the unions can take the actions they had planned. However, the unions claimed they could “simply” hold a ballot on taking fresh industrial action, raising the prospect of further disruptions this week.
The injunction blocked the industrial action that members had voted to take until the substantive matter is heard by the court. The next court date is yet to be set.
Rail unions labelled the Minns government’s actions “appalling”. Toby Warnes, the secretary of the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW, said: “To attack a group of essential workers in this way is petulant and disappointing to say the least.”
Warnes said unions and government had been “within a whisker” of a deal on Saturday night. He said it was “extremely damaging” for government lawyers to contact the unions demanding they cancel planned action or else face a potential injunction.
“The effect of the action on the weekend was … this dispute might have lasted one or two more weeks and now we’re probably looking at a matter of months before we’re able to resolve this dispute and rebuild the trust that’s been lost,” he said.
Warnes said the unions had already lodged papers to proceed with a fresh protected action ballot. If members voted in favour of that it would not be subject to the injunction, he said, warning fresh industrial action could be staged between Christmas and the new year.
The RTBU has demanded a 32% pay rise over four years, while the NSW government’s starting offer to the rail unions has been a 9.5% pay rise over three years.
NSW police in mid-November won a pay deal that will see wages rise by up to 40%.
On Monday morning, Minns rejected the idea that the significant rise secured by police set the combined rail unions’ expectations too high. The premier did say, however, that negotiations broke down over pay.
Natalie Ward, the opposition transport spokesperson, was scathing of the transport minister, Jo Haylen.
“Jo Haylen has one job, to keep NSW transport moving. Instead, she’s steering us straight into gridlock,” Ward said.
“This government’s inability to manage basic industrial negotiations is leaving families stranded and businesses bleeding at the busiest time of the year.”
