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Negotiation breakdown threatens to keep new rail fleet in mothballs
By Tom Rabe
Negotiations between the NSW government and unions over train safety have broken down, which could leave the new multibillion-dollar intercity rail fleet in mothballs for several more months.
The government and train workers have been at loggerheads for years over the safety of the $2.8 billion fleet, which rail unions argue requires modifications before it can operate in NSW.
A new intercity fleet train sits idle in a Central Coast maintenance facility amid a prolonged stand-off between rail unions and the NSW government.Credit:Tom Rabe
While NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet last week indicated the government was open to making some concessions to end the industrial stand-off, union leaders said that negotiations stalled on Tuesday night.
Unions NSW assistant general secretary Thomas Costa said they were surprised by the government when its representatives revealed a plan to modify the trains would not go to the state’s powerful expenditure review committee before this month’s state budget.
“We are blindsided. We thought we were having good, productive discussions that would resolve the [New Intercity Fleet] within the week,” Costa said.
“It’s fair to say that what we thought there was goodwill from the government trying to work with us to fix the NIF - that goodwill has been withdrawn… We could be here for another six months.”
The latest move from the government over the future of the NIF threatens to derail a months-long negotiating process central to its enterprise bargaining agreement with the rail union.
Former premier Gladys Berejiklian with former transport minister Andrew Constance inspecting an intercity fleet train in April 2021.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
It comes as the Perrottet government deals with industrial action across much of the public sector, with workers voicing their outrage at the state’s recent offer of a 3 per cent wages increase amid rising inflation.
Thousands of public sector workers rallied outside NSW Parliament on Wednesday, angry at the government’s pay offer.
NSW Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) secretary Alex Claassens said he felt his union had been “fobbed off” by a government that was rapidly walking back from its commitment to get the intercity fleet in service.
“We are very disappointed in the meeting we had yesterday … they backed away from everything,” Claassens said.
“There was a definite step back in trying to get this sorted out. We are frustrated and angry.”
However, Employee Relations Minister Damien Tudehope said the government was not walking back its commitment to modifying the fleet.
“A without prejudice proposal has been developed to assess the time and cost implications of the RTBU’s demands for modifications,” he said.
“The RTBU proposal for modifications to the NIF would cost over $1 billion of taxpayer funds. These trains have been independently accredited as safe to enter service as currently configured.”
Tudehope said the proposal was still under consideration, alongside the broader conditions of a new enterprise agreement for rail workers.
Opposition transport spokeswoman Jo Haylen said the government was wasting tens of millions of taxpayer cash keeping the trains in storage.
“Millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money is spent every month to just keep these trains in storage when the government could have spent much less and got these trains on the tracks as soon as they arrived,” she said.
“These trains are yet to carry a single passenger, but the government’s refusal to modify them has cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions and antagonised the rail workforce.”
The fleet, which began arriving in Sydney more than two years ago, has been sitting in sheds at a cost of $30 million a month to the taxpayer, according to NSW Treasurer Matt Kean.
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