Thousands of Sydneysiders are hoping for a smooth commute home on Thursday night after rail workers were ordered to stop industrial action immediately.
The Fair Work Commission has ordered an interim order stopping all strike action until a hearing is held next week.
The strike ban came into effect 6.30pm Thursday.
The NSW government earlier submitted a 424 application to the Fair Work Commission, in a bid to force industrial action to stop.
Premier Chris Minns ended his holiday early and returned to government in order to lodge the new form with the Fair Work Commission.
This new claim allows the commission to immediately halt any protected industrial action if it is found to endanger life, personal safety or health, or welfare of people or cause significant damage to the Australian economy or part of it.
The breakthrough comes after two days of travel chaos caused by the Electrical Trades Union and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union’s ongoing pay dispute.
An estimated 40 per cent – about 1,500 rail services – were cancelled or significantly impacted on Wednesday and an additional 1,000 services were cancelled on Thursday.
Train strikes will temporarily stop after The Fair Work Commission was given new authorities to intervene under a new application filed by the NSW government
Premier Chris Minns ended his holiday early in order to return to government and file a new claim under Section 424 which allows the commission to end protected action
Fair Work Commission president Alan Hatcher said the mandatory interim order had to be made as it would not be practicable to have the legal challenge heard within five days as is required under legislation.
Sydney Trains lawyer Jamie Darams SC had previously said the rail authority would provide nine witness statements at a full bench hearing on Wednesday and Thursday next week.
The statements would be ‘mostly directed to the operational consequences of the work bans in place and the effects of those bans’, he said.
‘In particular, we will be relying upon the welfare, endangerment to the welfare and also, I understand at this stage, health and safety.’
Mr Daram made clear that Sydney Trains wanted the matter ‘heard sooner rather than later’.
James Emmett, who represents NSW Industrial Relations Minister Sophie Cotsis, said the government would provide evidence about economic impact in the hearings.
Mr Emmett said this evidence would prove the rail strikes caused ‘significant damage to an important part of the economy, as well as welfare harm to welfare’.
Mr Minns said his government wanted an urgent outcome which would end the industrial action which has thrown the city into chaos.
The premier said despite his government engaging in good faith negotiations with rail unions they had been stymied every time
Banning protected industrial action for the time being was not a decision he made lightly but was ‘appropriate’, according to Mr Minns
The premier said despite good faith negotiations with rail unions no agreement has been made and that ‘nearly every family in Sydney’ has been impacted by now.
‘We have sat in good faith with the unions for a long time, we’ve come to the table with a good faith offer,’ the premier said.
‘We’ve made that offer public to NSW employees in the transport system.
‘We’ve done everything we possibly can to get to an agreement with the rail unions – they’ve continued to hold out.
‘When the union says negotiations, what they really mean is that they’re going to continue to put a noose around the public transport system while demanding more and more and more money from the NSW government.
‘And unfortunately, the collateral damage when it comes to this industrial action are the mums and dads, the commuters, the people of NSW that just need to get to and from work.
‘Now, if the Fair Work Commission agrees with the government’s application, that’s the end of protected industrial action on the railways in NSW, and we go to an arbitrated decision.’
Mr Minns said the decision to ban protected industrial action for the time being was ‘appropriate’ despite its consequences given the circumstances he is facing.
Commuters around Sydney have been thrown into endless chaos by the strikes which began late last year and have impacted thousands of trains since
The RBTU disputed Mr Minns’ claims of ‘endless industrial action’ and said his latest move was a desperate attempt to shift the blame onto rail workers.
‘If the NSW government truly cared about its essential workers — whether it’s nurses, psychiatrists, or rail workers — it would have come to the table long ago with a fair offer for these important workforces,’ the RTBU said in a statement.
‘Instead, 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 workers of NSW are asking for basic, fair wages, safer conditions, and job security — nothing extravagant, just what they deserve. The longer the government refuses to take this seriously, the longer this dispute will drag on.’
It added that the government had previously failed to engage in bargaining for 44 days prior to the chaotic strikes.
NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the relentless strikes were ‘strangling’ the city’s networks and ‘making life impossible’ for its citizens.
‘We have put a very fair and reasonable offer on the table, and the deadline for the unions’ response is today,’ Ms Haylen said.
‘However, unfortunately, their commentary in the media and elsewhere has been that they are not supportive of that fair and reasonable offer.’
NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the strikes were ‘strangling’ the city and ‘making life impossible’
The RBTU had 350 ongoing industrial bans as of Wednesday.
Union members are participating in the strikes in the hopes that they will lead to a 32 per cent pay rise across four years for union members.
As of Wednesday afternoon nly 16 per cent of morning peak-hour services departed on-time or within five minutes of their scheduled departure, according to Transport for NSW.
This meant more than 80 per cent of services were either late or cancelled as thousands of Sydneysiders tried making their way to work.
Out of the 393 peak-hour services more than 100 were cancelled in the morning while others were delayed by up to five hours on the T4 line.
Thus far a 15 per cent pay rise has been offered to union members and the union was given until Thursday to respond to the offer.
The urgent Fair Work Commission hearing late on Thursday delivered 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.
The RBTU had 350 seperate industrial bans in effect as of Wednesday morning which interrupted 80 per cent of Sydney’s rail network
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.
NSW train drivers appear unlikely to accept the 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.
However, it is understood that this does not mean feedback on the offer could not be raised past Thursday.
The two sides have been at loggerheads since September, with workers calling for four annual wage increases of eight per cent.
Mr 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.
Opposition transport spokeswoman Natalie Ward said Thursday’s intervention came months too late
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.
