5 days ago
Hundreds rally as lift technicians locked out in pay standoff
Hundreds of lift technicians have gathered outside Schindler Lifts' NSW head office, after calls for a 6% pay rise were rejected and the company locked staff out of the office.
Schindler Group said there would still be 'limited field staff' available for relasing anyone trapped in lifts and would carry out critical repairs of escalators in the state where needed.
The multinational company initiated the lockout last Friday after its NSW workforce began protected industrial action over pay and conditions.
Schindler Group is the largest suppliers of elevators, escalators, and related services in Australia, servicing public facilities such as train stations, hospitals, and commercial buildings.
This union said the action has caused growing disruption to lifts and escalators across the state, with maintenance and servicing increasingly delayed.
Electrical Trades Union NSW/ACT Secretary Allen Hicks described Schindler's move as 'a complete overreaction' to workers exercising their legal rights.
'Locking out almost 300 workers without pay is unfair and unreasonable. It's a blatant attempt from the multinational to crush the workforce rather than listen to their needs,' Mr Hicks said.
He said Schindler was denying its NSW workforce fair wages and conditions, and that employees were 'simply doing what they're legally entitled' to do to push negotiations forward.
'They closed up'
A union spokeswoman outlined the lead-up to the lockout, explaining workers had been in negotiations with the company for several months but had seen little progress.
'This isn't a militant workforce by any stretch. The last time they took any sort of action was over 20 years ago, and that was very low level too,' she said.
'They started taking some protected industrial actions, things like bans on certain tools and some small, short work stoppages,' she told NewsWire.
'Then on Friday, Schindler turned around and said, 'We're just going to lock you all out if you keep taking action.' So that's what they did, they closed up and won't let the workers back until they agree to stop the protected industrial action.'
However, Schindler Lifts responded to the dispute on Wednesday with a statement acknowledging the industrial action and explaining the reasons behind the lockout.
'The ban on using power tools and multimeters is one which hamstrings the organisation and due to safety concerns leaves no choice but to stop work, hence the decision was taken to go to a lockout,' the company said.
'While we respect the right of our employees to engage in lawful industrial activity, we are disappointed by the decision to take this step during ongoing negotiations.'
Schindler also detailed the scale of workers' claims, stating their log of claims contained 45 items, including a 6 per cent annual pay rise, a figure unchanged since talks began in May 2025.
'The cost of the claims represents a 40 per cent increase to our labour cost across three years,' the company said.
According to Schindler, management has met with the bargaining committee 11 times and presented three offers. Their latest proposal included a 4.5 per cent annual pay increase and higher allowances, which was rejected.
'All requests Schindler Management have requested to improve efficiency and offset some of the increases have been rejected,' the statement added.
The company also assured customers that 'contingency plans' were in place to minimise disruption.
