NSW government has made a deal on a long-running pay dispute with train unions

News.com.au

a day ago

The long-running pay dispute between the NSW government and train unions, that led to months of on-off chaos for commuters, appears to have been resolved.
The government and unions on Friday agreed in the Fair Work Commission to a 12 per cent pay rise over three years.
The Rail, Tram, and Bus Union and the Electrical Trades Union had been seeking a 32 per cent pay rise over four years, while the government offered a 9.5 per cent rise over three years.
'This agreement will bring relief to the disruption from protected industrial action that a million daily rail commuters have been forced to endure while just trying to get to work and get around,' Transport Minister John Graham said.
The dispute led to a series of industrial action, that disrupted travel for millions since last September.
The deal ends protected industrial action by the Combined Rail Unions and allows Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink to focus on improving reliability across the network, the government said in a statement.
However, the ETU is expected to reject the deal.
'This afternoon, the Combined Rail Unions (CRU) reached an in-principle agreement with Sydney Trains and NSW Trains for a new enterprise agreement,' the CRU said.
'Unfortunately, the ETU is blocking a vote by members effectively withholding any pay rise or new conditions that our EA delegates have fought so hard for.
'The reason they are blocking a vote is due to a misconceived claim to create a 'new section' for their members, for a purpose nobody understands.'
The proposed Enterprise Agreement, facilitated by the Fair Work Commission, delivers rail workers a 12 per cent pay rise over three years plus back pay.
It will deliver agreement on a number of technology-based solutions to improve recovery times when incidents on the tracks bring the system to a halt.
For example, train crews will support the introduction of a new digital disruption management
system that will end the current practice that relies on a manual system of phone calls and paper-based instructions during recovery from an incident.
The unions and government have also reached agreement to move to a streamlined process for consulting on new fleet, systems and infrastructure projects.
Mr Graham said the bitter dispute had 'strained the patience of train passengers'.
'But in finalising this deal we have made a very important investment in reliability,' he said.
'This much-needed reset allows us to implement improvements for passengers with the full support of the rail workforce and unions.
'We said we would sign off on a fair and reasonable wage rise for our rail workers that protects taxpayer's money, and that is exactly what we have done.
'I want to thank the commuting public for their patience as we got this agreement done.'