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As you may be aware, over the past week we have been before the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The hearing has been adjourned and will resume on 6 October.

Today, we are in conciliation with Sydney Trains, and the Combined Rail Unions to see if we can resolve outstanding issues.

Conciliation is a voluntary process overseen by the FWC where each party can explore avenues for reaching an agreed outcome. In conciliation any outcome is possible provided both parties agree to it.

We welcome this process and hope it will propel us forward so we can reach a position where we can bring the proposed Enterprise Agreement package to you for a vote.

I will continue to update you as things progress. Please reach out to your manager should you have any questions, otherwise as always, you can contact the EA team on NSWTLEA@transport.nsw.gov.au

Another busy week of engagement with the Combined Rail Unions (CRU) on the Enterprise Agreement (EA) as we worked through the outstanding issues on our proposed new Enterprise Agreement.

As part of this week’s discussions, we provided a copy of the proposed EA to the CRU to discuss with their members and you, our people. It includes a wide range of improvements and reflects the outcomes after a long period of discussions with unions over these past months.

I recognise this has been a really challenging time for both our people and our customers, and there has been a lot of media coverage as a result. I also know many of you have concerns about the safety of our people, particularly during this recent period of protected industrial action with some customers expressing heightened frustration. 

It is essential that we all feel safe while at work and it is unacceptable for our people to be threatened in any way, under any circumstances while performing their role.

While we have robust safety processes and procedures in place and other initiatives that guide and support our safety and wellbeing, increasing our security and safety awareness is a step we can all take to protect ourselves and make NSW TrainLink more safe and more secure.

Please take the time to refresh your knowledge of our safety protocols and continue to be vigilant and report any security related incidents. The Tips and Tricks intranet page is a great source of information.

This is a dynamic and evolving situation and it is important that we continue to respect and look out for each other and remain focused on supporting our customers to get to where they need to go, safely and reliably.

I will keep you informed on progress.

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 

Dear team,

As you would have seen in the Secretary’s message yesterday, the NSW Government has put forward a renewed offer to the Combined Rail Unions on the Enterprise Agreements for Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink. The renewed offer has a lot in it for our people and is a step towards resolving the industrial uncertainty and providing the customer service our communities need.

The offer

This offer includes acceptance of union requested changes to the Mariyung fleet operating model, and one Enterprise Agreement for both agencies. In addition to this, it also includes the wage offer shared last week.

Some of the benefits on offer for NSW TrainLink include:

Better leave entitlements and support for all employees

• Compassionate / bereavement leave increase to 5 days per occurrence
• Improved parental leave conditions including:
  • Access to 14 weeks paid parental leave for the parent with Primary Responsibility of the child (for employees with at least 40 weeks service).
  • Access to 2 weeks paid parental leave for the parent who does not have Primary Responsibility of the child and a further 12 weeks if the employee assumes Primary Responsibility for the care of the child (for employees with at least 40 weeks service).
  • Recognition of surrogacy.
  • Insertion of a miscarriage clause.
    
• Clearer entitlements in the carer’s leave clause.
• Recognition of Aboriginal Kinship in the provision of care.
• A new follow up medical clause regarding attendance at follow up medical appointments for employees who are off roster.
• An updated Critical Incident Clause which has details regarding direct and indirect exposure to incidents.
• Improvements to the formerly named Termination on Medical Advice Procedure (now the Retirement on Medical Advice Procedure), including assessment for a broader range of jobs in the Transport Cluster and options around Employee’s returning to their former position.
• More detailed provisions around support for employees who are victims of Domestic and Family Violence.

Providing more clarity about ways of working

• New rostering principles, focused on specific requirements for rostering arrangements developed throughout the organisation.
• The ADO clause has been updated to specify that requests to clear ADOs in a block will not be unreasonably refused by the Employer, subject to genuine business and operational requirements.

Keeping our employees safe

• Changes to the WHS clause, focussed on maturing a safety culture, and other processes and systems including a fair and just culture, reporting culture, management of risks and clarity of roles, accountabilities and responsibilities.
• A new clause on the prevention of sexual harassment in the workplace, including support for victims of sexual harassment.
• Union involvement in Risk Assessments.

Improving our processes

• Establishment of a framework to be applied during discipline matters.
• Changes to the Discipline clause, including new clauses regarding the provision of the investigation report, consideration of working arrangements prior to suspension and notification of reasons for suspension.
• When off duty at the initiative of the Employer, employees will be paid the average of their last 6 months worked.

In addition to these new provisions for all NSW TrainLink employees, the proposal includes an agreement that the unions will not prevent the rail entities from proposing the introduction of new technology and work practice changes to an affected work group for their consideration.

Additional role-specific benefits for NSW TrainLink employees

There are a variety of benefits to support various roles in NSW TrainLink. Highlights include:

• Training to upskill all frontline staff with basic IT skills (8 hours training per employee)
• Access to nationally accredited Cert IV qualifications for all our Drivers to recognise the work that they do
• 20-min Crib Break for Intercity Guards
• Lift up and Lay back for Intercity Drivers and Guards
• Working On Book Off Day (WOBOD) payment for Drivers and Guards
• Driver Cab allowance to be included in base pay
• Guard Cab and Security allowance to be included in base pay
• Drivers Over Time on a Saturday paid at double time after eight hours 
• Removal of split shifts (for both Drivers and Guards)
• Retention of master roster limits to changes
• Regional Station Staff wage rates increased to the equivalent of Intercity Station Staff classification rates
• Rostering Governance Committee to oversee the introduction of rostering guidelines and transfer procedures for Onboarders
• Commitment to work with unions and our people during the life of the agreement to facilitate the customer facing model and changes for our Station Staff and Onboarders.

The unions are now considering the renewed offer. We will meet with them again today to further explain the detail of the offer and to work towards finalising an agreement for our people.

Protected Industrial Action

The NSW Government has requested unions withdraw all protected actions now that the revised offer has been provided for consideration. The union is yet to respond to this request, and at this stage the Protected Industrial Action notified for today and tomorrow will continue as notified.

I want to thank our people who are working incredibly hard to minimise the impacts to our staff, customers, and communities during this difficult time. We continue to work through the potential impacts to services, and will keep our staff and customers informed as soon as possible of any delays and cancellations.

I’ll keep you updated over the coming weeks as things progress and will also share more detail on what the renewed offer means for us at NSW TrainLink.

Please reach out to your leader should you have any questions, otherwise you can always contact the EA team NSWTLEA@transport.nsw.gov.au.

Stay safe, 

Dale

I want to provide you with an update following a meeting I had earlier with the Combined Rail Union (CRU) and the Minister for Transport.

We presented the CRU with a renewed offer as part of our Enterprise Agreements that we hope will allow us to move forward for our people and bring an end to ongoing disruption and industrial uncertainty.

The revised terms include several new provisions including modifications to the New Intercity Fleet and a single Enterprise Agreement for Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink. The renewed offer continues our focus on keeping customers moving and introducing one of the world’s most modern train fleets into service.

In making this renewed offer I would highlight that safety is always our number one priority. Safety is non-negotiable for our customers and our people.

What this means for our network this week

The renewed offer is conditional on the unions stopping all significant industrial action immediately, so that disruption to our customers does not continue. However, even with the support of the unions we expect some service impacts for the remainder of the week and are encouraging people to stay up to date with the latest travel information.

Thank you to our people

I’d like to thank everyone who has worked hard to shape this offer and acknowledge the professionalism of those who are managing the impacts of this week’s disruptions to our network.

Matt Longland, Chief Executive Sydney Trains and Dale Merrick, Chief Executive NSW TrainLink will provide further updates to our teams on what the revised offer means for you.

Take care

Rob

Minister Tudehope, Minister Elliott, our Secretary and both Hayden and I met with our rail unions late this afternoon to put an offer forward to the unions on separate Enterprise Agreements for Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink.

The offer for our people includes:

• Separate Enterprise Agreements for each agency for three-years
• First year 3% increase from the first pay period after approval. Increase is inclusive of Superannuation Guarantee Contributions (noting that the July 2022 contribution will be applied independently of the EA on 1 July 2022)
• Second year 3.5% increase inclusive of Superannuation Guarantee Contributions
• Third year 2.5% increase inclusive of Superannuation Guarantee Contributions
• A one-off sign on payment of $3,185 in lieu of backpay
• A range of other improved terms and conditions based on the feedback received through the bargaining process.

Discussions are still occurring regarding the Mariyung and I want to reiterate that throughout these discussions safety will remain our number one priority.

This is a good offer for our people that has been shaped by your feedback and many hours at the bargaining table. Our goal has always been to have an Enterprise Agreement developed by us, for us, and this offer moves us closer to an agreement that we can take to you for a vote.

We have committed to further engagement with the unions next week and have asked the unions to put a stop to protected industrial action that will result in impacts to our customers.

I look forward to providing more detail next week on what the offer means for NSW TrainLink.

Stay safe,

Dale.

You would have seen media coverage over the last 24 hours regarding the Mariyung, which has no doubt raised questions.

I want to reiterate the commitment that Matt, Dale and I have to finding a pathway forward for both Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink to reach an agreement that meets the needs of our people and our customers, both now and into the future. This work is a priority.

We were back at the bargaining table yesterday and have another session planned next week to continue negotiations. We have made great progress and I feel like we are on a good trajectory.

I acknowledge the challenge that comes with uncertainty and that this process is taking longer than any of us expected. However to really understand, consider and address what is most important to you does take time, and it is important we get this right.

I will update you when I have more information to share.

Take care

Rob

Rob Sharp
Secretary
Transport for NSW

An agreed six-week period of intensive bargaining with our rail unions has been progressing and wrapped up this week.

Bargaining sessions were attended by the Combined Rail Unions and representatives from Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink, including our Chief Executives Matt Longland and Dale Merrick. We also held a series of workgroups to engage in the detail with subject matter experts across the agencies.

I was able to attend bargaining on Tuesday and I was pleased to see delegates and staff working hard to find common ground to resolve outstanding issues. We covered a lot of material and have made really good progress.

There was a strong focus to address priorities in the log of claims in areas including safety, rostering, disciplinary and consultation processes, support for those experiencing family and domestic violence, uniforms, and allowances and conditions for different work groups.

The next step is for the NSW Government to consider the priority claims that have arisen from the negotiation process and the intensive bargaining period.

I am confident we can work towards finalising an offer.

I’d like to extend my thanks to all those who have participated during this period of intensive bargaining and look forward to making more progress over the coming weeks.

Take care

Rob

Rob Sharp
Secretary
Transport for NSW

We have had constructive discussions with the RTBU and both parties are committed to moving forward. We have come to a mutual agreement that will allow us to return to the bargaining table, to progress negotiations through the next six weeks. During this time, the RTBU has withdrawn the bans they notified on 9 March and have also agreed not to take any new actions through this period.

The actions that were lifted are:

• Train crew only working master roster
• Ban on train crew accepting altered working
• Ban on issuing transpositions
• Ban on train crew accepting transposition slips

The RTBU’s “Fare Free Friday” bans have been paused for Friday 25 March 2022. There will be ongoing discussions between Government and the RTBU on this.

While this is good news for our customers who have been battling disruption for months, some tough decisions had to be made to reach this outcome.

As part of the discussions, and the mutual agreement we came to with the RTBU, a moderate increase in financial benefits for Intercity drivers and guards was agreed to, but it also required the removal of the NSW TrainLink customer facing model at this time.

Here at NSW TrainLink, we, and I personally, recognise and value the important role our on-boarders and station staff play in our customers’ journeys. The change to the customer facing model from our EA offering will be hard for some of us, and it is hugely disappointing as it was intended to lift the base pay of those who lean in to our customers every day. It will remain as an option to pursue during the life of the agreement, through usage of the facilitation clause.

I will keep you updated over the coming weeks as we continue working with the unions and our independent bargaining representatives for an outcome for our people that will move us closer to a vote. 

I appreciate your patience and resilience during what continues to be a difficult time for all of us. Please reach out to your manager should you have any questions, otherwise you can always contact the EA team NSWTLEA@transport.nsw.gov.au.

Take care,

Dale

Following some progressive discussions this week, a commitment has been made by the RTBU to speak with their members over the coming days with a view to withdrawing a number of actions for a period of six weeks to allow us to focus on bargaining.  
 
This would be a great outcome for our customers and will allow us to focus on intensive negotiations to drive us toward an offer for our people.  
 
The unions this week also reaffirmed their commitment to continue to work with us to manage any incidents on the network while protected industrial action is in place.  
 
We look forward to engaging with the unions over the next six weeks and being able to share some positive outcomes for our people that will move us closer to a vote.