Rail workers strike postponed after eleventh-hour deal with the NSW government

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Railway services across Sydney are running today and tomorrow, after 11th hour talks between the state government and rail unions averted a 48-hour shutdown.

Transcript

00:00Those 11th hour talks between the Premier, Chris Mins, and the Union, they were essentially

00:06locked in a room alongside Transport Minister Jo Halen, thrashing out the details of how

00:12indeed to prevent this strike from going ahead.

00:14We know that about a million people use the trains every day and the chaos and carnage

00:19that would have occurred as a result of these disruptions would have been massive and they

00:23would have flowed onto just about every facet of activity in terms of travel, whether it

00:27be on buses, ferries, using the roads as well.

00:31So what was the solution?

00:32It essentially relied on a concession from the New South Wales Government.

00:36For a long time, they had said the Union's demand to see 24-7 train services run across

00:41the weekend wasn't practical or feasible, certainly not for every single line.

00:45They had initially offered a concession of running one train line to do it.

00:50Now, as a result of the discussions yesterday, they've said they'll have as many lines as

00:55possible running 24-7.

00:57Exactly how many train lines that is, does remain to be seen, but it will be more than

01:01the one they were offering.

01:03We know that much.

01:04As a concession then from the Union, we've seen a two-week pause on any proposed industrial

01:09action and that's going to leave the gate open for two weeks to basically come to a

01:13deal for the other major matter between the Unions and the Government, which is regarding

01:18pay and conditions.

01:19Now, the Government had offered just over 11% to the Unions in terms of pay increases

01:25over a three-year period.

01:27The Unions wanted a 32% pay increase, so there was a massive gulf there.

01:31The Premier, Chris Mins, has essentially flagged that he believes there was considerable ground

01:36and headway being made in across-the-board negotiations around pay and conditions and

01:41that time was really their enemy.

01:43So buying this two weeks has really been the game-changer for them to try and thrash out

01:48a deal.

01:50We can't, though.

01:51It does leave commuters open to the possibility of industrial action being taken after that

01:55two-week period, even closer to the festive season, so you can just imagine just how much

01:59chaos it would cause if there was a problem occurring there and a deal wasn't done.

02:05Right now, the appetite is reasonably high and we've seen positive signs both from Government

02:09and Union that a deal will be struck, but the next two weeks will certainly be telling.

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