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Industrial action that has crippled Australia’s busiest train network has been suspended after a last-ditch court application spared more commuter pain.
Some 1900 trains were cancelled on Wednesday while another 1000 services were expected to be scrapped on Thursday as NSW rail workers ratcheted up industrial bans to force a bumper pay rise.
But an urgent Fair Work Commission hearing late on Thursday paid dividends for the state government, with president Adam Hatcher delivering an interim order suspending the 300-plus work bans.
A full bench of the commission will on Wednesday rule on the government’s bid to halt the bans immediately and have the industrial umpire resolve the months-long impasse, with the action scrapped in the meantime.
Premier Chris Minns, who cut short his summer break to handle the latest development in the state’s eight-month rail crisis, said officials were forced daily to unpick hundreds of actions to run basic services.
“That’s a joke,” he said.
“You can’t run a public transport system in an international city like Sydney, where every morning you have to work out whether running a simple service from Hurstville to Bondi Junction trips up three, four or 10 different industrial bans.
“We don’t know how many small businesses have been smashed because of 50 per cent of trains not running.”
The orders sought through the commission would thwart the union’s ability to instigate a new set of work bans and force it into arbitration, where the industrial court could dictate the pay rise workers received.
‘A desperate attempt to shift the blame’
Earlier, the Rail Tram and Bus Union called the government’s application “nothing more than a desperate attempt to shift the blame for its own failure to negotiate with workers”.
“It engages in cheap political tricks designed at achieving headlines, pays law firms top dollar to bring bogus legal cases and anything else it can to avoid sitting at the bargaining table,” the union said.
NSW train drivers appear unlikely to accept a marginally increased pay offer of 15 per cent across four years but their union has until the end of the day to provide an initial response to the government.
The two sides have been at loggerheads since September, with workers calling for four annual wage increases of eight per cent.
Minns defended not putting the government’s offer out to a workforce vote, over the union’s opposition, saying commuters did not have weeks to wait.
But others say waiting was precisely the problem and Thursday’s intervention was months too late.
“It’s no good to come after the chaos and after it’s all blown up, and step in and say, you’re trying to fix it,” opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said.
Options for refunds or allowing a free travel day were being considered after the premier said fares paid by inconvenienced commuters should be refunded.
Commuter data shows the travelling public ditched rail where they could after navigating long delays on Wednesday morning.
Trips during Wednesday afternoon peak were down 40 per cent while trains were “very lightly loaded” on Thursday morning, Sydney Trains boss Matthew Longland said.
Fewer than three in 10 morning peak trains ran on time.
Sydney Trains has defended docking the pay of workers not completing full tasks, such as crews choosing to staff only half as many inter-city services as normal.
