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Following the Fair Work Commission (FWC) arbitration decision on 10 March 2023 and the FWC issued orders on 3 April 2023, we can confirm the wage increase operative from 1 May 2023, to be applied from the first pay period commencing after that date, and will be paid on these dates:

For Drivers and Guards: A pay increase of 4.03% plus super will be paid in the pay run for pay day 12 May 2023. This includes an additional 1% increase which was a result of FWC arbitration.

For RC graded employees, other salary employees, Station Staff, and Onboarders: A pay increase of 4.03% plus super will be paid in the pay run for pay day 19 May 2023. This includes an additional 1% increase which was a result of FWC arbitration.

Transport Payroll have advised us the payslips for the additional 1% backpay being paid in the 28 April 2023 pay run will be delayed until Friday 28 April 2023. There is no delay to when you will be paid just to when these payslips will be available. If you are a Driver or Guard and haven’t received your payslip by the Friday please contact the TSS Service Centre on 133 148.

What to do if you have questions
Please check the FAQs on Stay Informed as we will add to them as new questions come in.
If you have any questions related to payroll or payslips, please direct your questions to mypay@transport.nsw.gov.au and for all other Enterprise Agreement questions contact NSWTLEA@transport.nsw.gov.au.

Following the Fair Work Commission (FWC) arbitration decision on 10 March 2023, the FWC has now issued the formal orders which confirm when you will receive the additional wage increase backdated to 1 May 2022 in your pay.

We can now confirm this is when you will be paid:

• For Salary, RC Graded Employees and Station Staff: The payment of the additional 1% increase backdated to 1 May 2022 will be paid in the pay run for pay day 21 April 2023.
• For Drivers and Guards: The payment of the additional 1% increase backdated to 1 May 2022 will be paid in the pay run pay day 28 April 2023.
• For Regional Station Staff only: The payment of the corrected base wage backdated to 1 May 2022 will be paid in the pay run for pay day 21 April 2023.

What to do if you have questions

You can find the full Fair Work Commission Orders on Stay Informed. If you have further questions, please continue to check the FAQs on Stay Informed.

If you have any questions related to payroll or payslips, please direct your questions to mypay@transport.nsw.gov.au and for all other Enterprise Agreement questions contact nswtlea@transport.nsw.gov.au

The Fair Work Commission (FWC) has made its decision on the two outstanding matters relating to the Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink 2022 Enterprise Agreement (EA) which were the subject of arbitration.

The FWC arbitration decision for employees covered under the EA is as follows:

Wage and Allowance increases

Employees will receive an additional 1% increase backdated to 1 May 2022 and an additional 1% increase from 1 May 2023

This means that under the EA, employees receive 3.53% plus super, backdated to 1 May 2022 and 4.03% plus super, from 1 May 2023.

Higher standards cleaning allowance

Customer Service Attendants and On-Board Services employees will not receive a higher standards cleaning allowance.

What happens next

Our teams are working hard to ensure payroll processes are in place and more information will be shared next week.

If you have any questions please email nswtlea@transport.nsw.gov.au/

Federal Court action

Sydney Trains, NSW TrainLink and the Australian Rail, Tram and Bus Industry Union (RTBU) have agreed to discontinue both sets of proceedings in the Federal Court in relation to the Opal gate matter.

We welcome this news, as our focus is on the implementation of the new Agreement and working to deliver you the benefits you are entitled to under the new Enterprise Agreement.

Tax update

I understand there have been many questions around the tax treatment of the one-off $4,500 payment. The amount of tax will vary for everyone depending on a range of tax elements, and there is a more detailed example now included in the FAQs on StayInformed.

Each individual’s circumstances will be different, so please speak to a tax agent or financial advisor if you have further questions about what this means for you.

Enterprise Agreement update

The new EA provides a lot of new benefits and over a hundred changes coming into effect, and we’ll continue to keep you updated about all relevant changes and procedures. There’s some important information for you to know today.

Your pay

Our people are working hard to implement these changes and deliver your entitlements. We initially prioritised getting the one-off payment of $4,500 processed in the pay run on either 17 February 2023 for Drivers and Guards or 24 February 2023 for employees in other classifications and the FAQs have been updated to give you more information on page 6 about how the payment is taxed.

Thanks to the hard work of the payroll and IT teams and following discussion with unions, we’re pleased to be able to bring forward some payments in the first full pay cycle after the EA comes into effect:

• For Drivers and Guards: the payment of the 2.53% pay rise plus super, (noting the super increase has already been paid since 1 July 2022), backpay of 2.53% from 1 May 2022 and roll-up of Cab Allowance (for Drivers) and Cab and Security Allowance (for Guards) into base pay will be paid in the pay of 3 March 2023. 
• For NSW TrainLink employees in all other classifications: the payment of the 2.53% pay rise plus super, (noting the super increase has already been paid since 1 July 2022) and backpay of 2.53% from 1 May 2022 will be paid in the pay of 10 March 2023.
  

Please remember that to claim any of the new entitlements you need to capture the relevant information on your timesheets from today. Have a look at the “What I do differently now” guides on StayInformed that explain this in detail.

Updated processes and procedures

Our main Transport Portal pages have been updated to display these new procedures that also come into effect today:

• The NSW Trains Prescription Safety Eyewear Procedure now reflects that if you wear prescription safety eyewear to do your work, the reasonable benefit limit has increased to a total of $1,000 for lenses and frames combined.
• An updated NSW Trains Medical Retirement Process (previously called TOMA), which steps through the processes for both employer-initiated and employee-initiated medical retirement. There is also an updated Medical Retirement Guide available for managers.

Another key commitment of the Enterprise Agreement is the Fair Decision Framework (FDF) which also applies from today. It applies in all new safety investigations and conduct matters, supporting the assessment of the actions of individuals involved in a safety incident or conduct matter.

Your Safety team and People and Culture Business Partners are available to provide support as we walk through implementation and upskilling our people. Visit the Fair Decision Framework SharePoint page for more information. 

Resources

StayInformed remains the place to go for EA information as we start working under our new agreement.

Yesterday we added factsheets to StayInformed that walk through What I Do Differently Now for different roles at NSW TrainLink.

Following the approval of the Sydney Trains and NSW Trainlink Enterprise Agreement 2022 (EA) by the Fair Work Commission (FWC) last Friday, we are now preparing for its implementation on Friday 17 February 2023.

Our priority is getting you the one-off payment of $4,500. This payment will be processed in the pay run on either 17 February 2023 for Train Crew or 24 February 2023 for employees in other classifications.

When the EA comes into effect this Friday there are many changes to be made which require complex payroll and system updates. Our teams are working hard to implement these changes, and deliver your entitlements, as quickly as possible.

The table below shows when the changes to your entitlements will be visible in your pay. You can start claiming these new entitlements on your timesheet or through Equip from 17 February 2023.

The NSWTL guards’ crib breaks will be phased in, in line with changes to the Master Roster requirements as set out in the EA. Guard schedules will be altered to accommodate the crib break from Friday.

As we’ve previously shared, backpay and the new wage increases will be calculated and paid after an outcome from the FWC arbitration proceedings. This will allow us to accurately calculate and process backpay and wage increases. I appreciate your patience as we wait for the FWC arbitration decision.

If you have any questions, please contact the EA team at nswtlea@transport.nsw.gov.au

We’re pleased to share that this afternoon the Fair Work Commission (FWC) approved our Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink Enterprise Agreement 2022, which we submitted for approval earlier this week.

The Agreement will take effect from 17 February 2023.

As you know, the arbitration hearing in relation to the outstanding matters took place this week. We’ll keep you updated on the progress once we hear more from the FWC about this.

Details relating to pay increases and backpay will be finalised soon.

We have an update on the application for approval of the enterprise agreement, which was made yesterday, 7 February 2023, to the Fair Work Commission (FWC). The new enterprise agreement can only come into effect after it is approved by the FWC.  

The arbitration hearing in relation to the outstanding matters commenced today and is scheduled to run until Friday 10 February 2023. We will keep you updated on the progress of both the application and the arbitration when we hear more from the FWC.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please reach out to your manager or contact NSWTLEA@transport.nsw.gov.au.

We’re very pleased our people have overwhelmingly voted “yes” to the financial boosts and many other benefits we put forward as part of the new Enterprise Agreement.

This is a great result. The new agreement offers so many benefits for our people – wage increases and the one-off payment, condition improvements, health and wellbeing benefits, including better support for carers.

We also have a clear and agreed path forward to getting our new Mariyung fleet on the network – a great outcome for our customers.

Arbitration

Next week we proceed to arbitration of the outstanding issues related to the wage increase and the application of a hazardous waste allowance.

As part of our in-principle agreement with the Combined Rail Unions, there are two matters that will be considered by the Fair Work Commission (FWC). These are:

• Wage and Allowance increases: The wage and allowance increases stated in the proposed Enterprise Agreement 2022 have been set as the minimum increase. The FWC will determine whether a higher amount above the minimum should apply.
• Cleaning Allowance: FWC is determining whether a hazardous waste allowance is payable to Customer Service Attendants and Onboard Staff.

Arbitration will commence on 8 February 2023. We will provide updates as we progress.

Implementation of benefits and conditions

Over the next few weeks, subject to the FWC’s consideration of the Enterprise Agreement, you’ll receive updates on the approval of your new Enterprise Agreement and implementation of the many new and improved benefits and conditions.

The expected timeline for some of the financial benefits is below:

• The one-off payment of $4,500 is expected to take approximately two weeks for employees, subject to your pay cycle to receive from today’s successful vote.
• The first year pay increase and backpay will be processed when the agreement comes into effect following approval of the agreement by FWC or the final arbitration on this matter – whichever comes later.

Getting to this point has come with its challenges, but it is now time to look to the future and focus on what we do best – supporting our customers to get to where they need to go, safely and reliably.

Dear team

Since making the proposed Sydney Trains and NSW TrainLink Enterprise Agreement 2022 and supporting materials available to our people, two minor adjustments have been made, as outlined below.

Both sections of the relevant documents have been updated on the Stayinformed website and a notice of the two corrections will be placed with printed copies of the proposed enterprise agreement at work locations.

We apologise for any inconvenience.

Kind regards

Enterprise Agreement Team

Amendment 1. Clarification to clause 6c(ii) of Mariyung Deed

Since signing and making the Mariyung Deed available to our people, we have needed to make a clarification in regards to clause 6c(ii) of the Deed.

Clause 6c of the Mariyung Deed refers to utilisation of qualified drivers and guards from the list of qualified test crew. While the list of qualified test crew will be utilised in phase 1 - testing (cl.6c(i)), in phase 2 - interim model, qualified train crew from Everleigh, Gosford and Newcastle depots will be utilised.

The clarification to the Deed has been discussed and agreed with the RTBU so that the document reflects the way it is intended to proceed.

The clarification is listed under ‘variations’ (clause 1) of the Mariyung Deed

Amendment 2. Correction to schedule 4A of the proposed Enterprise Agreement

Note: this change is specific to Schedule 4A for Sydney Trains Operations and does not impact NSW TrainLink sections or other sections applying to Sydney Trains.

An error was identified in Schedule 4A on page 134 of the proposed Enterprise Agreement. In one section of the table (as shown below) headings were copied into the rates of pay for Area Controller Grades 1 – 3, instead of displaying the rates of pay. The correction is shown below.

More information

More resources relating to the proposed Enterprise Agreement 2022 are available on Stayinformed. If you have questions, speak to your manager or email nswtlea@transport.nsw.gov.au.