00:00Sydney Train says it's not exactly sure at this point what the extent of delays and cancellations
00:07will be across the network and that's because essentially it's not sure exactly how many
00:13workers will show up to work today.
00:15Now this is the product of the latest flare up in tensions over negotiations between the
00:22rail tram and bus union and the state government in a long running saga involving negotiations
00:28over pay, those negotiations broke down on Thursday evening leading to the union telling
00:35its members to go slow on the network over the coming days meaning they would travel
00:4223 kilometres an hour slower than usual.
00:45Sydney Trains then decided that workers who engaged in that action would not be paid.
00:51The union responded again by telling its workers then that they had the option of simply not
00:56showing up to work and that's what happened yesterday.
00:59The state government says that at least 500 workers on the network chose to not show up
01:07leading to lengthy delays and cancellations right across Sydney's train network and the
01:13lines surrounding Sydney.
01:15The south coast line down to Kiama saw no trains running for large parts of the day
01:19and there were lengthy delays through peak times yesterday.
01:24In terms of today we've already seen many services being cancelled across several lines.
01:31For people here at Central Station the impacts haven't yet been as severe but like I said
01:36we're not sure exactly how many workers will show up today and how that will impact the
01:43system.
01:44People are being urged to avoid non-essential travel.
01:47The state government says that it will be back in the Fair Work Commission with the
01:52union today to try to reach a solution.
01:56It says it's using any legal avenue to try to halt this industrial action and it's hopeful
02:02that it can do that this weekend but the union says it wants the state government to come
02:06back to the table and negotiate in good faith over pay.
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