Our response to ongoing industrial action

Dear team,  

As you will have seen, the Secretary shared today that NSW TrainLink and Sydney Trains have applied to the Fair Work Commission, alongside an application from the Minister for Employee Relations, to terminate all protected industrial action. The application was made following the tabling of an offer in writing to the rail unions last week, including a commitment to the changes sought by the RTBU to the New Intercity Fleet (NIF), in return for unions agreeing in principle to the offer and ceasing protected industrial action.

We are in the customer service business, and the safety of our people and our customers must always drive the decisions we make. The impacts to our network, our people and customers has left no other choice but to seek the assistance of the Fair Work Commission to bring an end to the ongoing industrial action while the Enterprise Agreement is considered. While I acknowledge the rights of our employees to take protected industrial action, the harm these actions are causing on our communities is considerable, and we have made this application to the independent industrial umpire to resolve the impasse and allow the rail network to return to normal.

The generous offer that was made to the unions last week still stands, and we will continue to work with the unions in good faith, including at planned meetings this week. I will keep you updated on how this progresses and what it means for us.

I want to close by talking about the extreme weather we’re once more seeing across the state, threatening the safety of our people, our customers and communities, and further disrupting services. As weather again challenges our operations, I know many of you are working around the clock to keep services running safely. I want to thank you for your efforts and all that you do. Please stay safe.

Take care, 

Dale