Chaos has been averted in Sydney this coming weekend, with a planned train strike now cancelled after the NSW government caved to rail union demands.
Industrial action was set to begin this afternoon and end on Sunday morning, but an agreement has now been reached to avert the strike to allow for two weeks of negotiations.
As part of the deal, premier Chris Minns says the government has agreed to run as many 24-hour train services as possible this weekend, starting on Thursday night.
“Intensive bargaining will begin between the government and unions in NSW over the next two weeks with a view from all sides to get a long-term deal across the unions that cover rail in the state that will last multiple years,” Minns says.
“We’ve landed this one today, we’ve got a lot of work to do in the next two weeks to get one up that is more permanent.
“It would have been great to get a long-term agreement negotiated in the last 48 hours. We ran out of time and neither side was prepared to let commuters suffer as a result of that.”
The union is using the 24-hour service as a way to pressure the government into giving it a better pay deal without frustrating the public.
In June, the state government offered train workers an 11 per cent rise over three years, but the RTBU rejected that offer and demanded a 32 per cent pay rise over four years and a 35-hour working week.
Transport minister Jo Haylen says the union and government had negotiated constructively and in good faith but that discussions about wages remained.
“That has resulted in a section of the process being resolved, now we are down to some of the other elements, including wages. This is an ongoing process,” she says,
She says both the government and transport unions “want an outcome by Christmas”.