Add Category
Updated
Earlier this week the NSW Transport Minister was engaged in a war of words with a union boss as the pay dispute between the state's rail workers and the Government threatened to go off the tracks.
But all that appears to have changed in a matter of days.
Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) NSW secretary Alex Claassens had accused Transport Minister Andrew Constance of being too "arrogant" to negotiate with the union.
Mr Constance labelled the union's threat of strike action as "extraordinary" and "weird behaviour from a union boss".
But following a meeting in Sydney on Friday, both parties seemed to bury the hatchet.
"It was a respectful meeting," Mr Claassens said. "We worked collaboratively with the Minister to hear what his issues were [and] he listened to what ours were.
"Today he was really conciliatory."
Mr Claassens said Mr Constance seemed committed to "try to resolve this mess, as we all are".
"Nobody wants to have a total disruption of our transport network," he said.
"The Minister showed us today that we all need to get on and fix this thing."
The union has been seeking a 6 per cent annual pay increase for its workers, but the Government has so far refused to increase its offer of a 2.5 per cent rise.
Rostering has also been a major sticking point, with the union arguing recent timetable changes had stretched its workforce too far.
Unions NSW secretary Mark Morey said both the unions and the Government had committed to working over the weekend to come up with a package they could take to workers by Monday.
"What we're actually trying to do now, is come up with a package that resolves the outstanding industrial issues, and has a final offer in it," he said.
Mr Claassens said despite the positive developments, strike action — for 24 hours from 12:01am on January 29 — was still on the table.
"We will still commence our overtime ban on Thursday and we've still got the strike action for the following Monday," he said.
"It will need to be a fairly good package for us to be able to withdraw that action. But my members will make that decision, it won't be a decision that I'll be making."
Mr Constance thanked the unions for the "productive approach" and negotiating "in good faith", saying his main aim was to come up with a package that would please the workforce and avoid a strike.
"It's in nobody's interest to have a strike. So we want to try to do everything we can to avert a strike action," he said.
"Over the next 48 hours we will continue to crunch numbers and work with the union leadership to finalise a package which can go back to the workforce and hopefully get a green light from them."
Mr Constance would not comment on the barbs he had earlier traded with Mr Claassens, instead imploring all parties to "look forward".
"Let's not look in the rear vision mirror. We have a strike to avert and we also want to make sure as part of averting the strike that we put a good package forward."
Mr Constance said the Government would be looking closely at improvements that could be made after a near-meltdown of the city's train system, early last week, when driver shortages and technical problems resulted in passengers waiting for hours for scheduled services.
He said the timetable was "intrinsically linked" to the pressure the rail workforce was feeling and he thanked workers for their service.
"We are so grateful to our workforce. Our workforce, from our train drivers to our station staff, have lifted customer satisfaction by 10 per cent in the last six years. So that's just an example of how hard the workforce is working."
Topics: rail-transport, state-parliament, unions, government-and-politics, states-and-territories, nsw, sydney-2000, wollongong-2500, newcastle-2300, gosford-2250
First posted