One senior government source suggested that the union had slowly pushed state authorities into a corner after weeks of incrementally increasing industrial action.
In a counter move on Friday,senior transport officials sought an injunction to halt the planned action,arguing it would pose a “significant disruption to customer journeys” and cause economic harm to the NSW economy.
The usually bustling Redfern station lies deserted on Monday after train services were suspended.Credit:James Alcock
“This has been an incredibly difficult decision,and not one we have taken lightly,” Transport for NSW secretary Rob Sharp said in an internal memo to staff last Friday. “However,we feel this action is needed to ensure people can return to workplaces,schools and tertiary institutions with confidence while a resolution is negotiated.”
By Saturday afternoon,a breakthrough had been reached after the rail union dropped plans for a ban on overtime work and made other concessions to transport officials. Crucially,the union agreed that a ban on accepting “altered work” would not apply in circumstances where it posed a safety risk or a significant incident on the network.
Yet,less than 24 hours after getting the concessions,transport officials recognised that the terms they had agreed to – including those relating to rostering – did not give them enough confidence that the rail network could be operated safely even if the industrial action was at a lower level.
“It was a misinterpretation of what the Saturday agreement was,” Mr Elliott told reporters at his Baulkham Hills electorate office in Sydney’s north-east on Monday.
Senior transport officials sought an urgent hearing of Fair Work at 8pm on Sunday to get clarity on what had been agreed a day earlier on “altered work” and rostering. By midnight,they realised that the main sticking points could not be resolved before the industrial action would start,leading them to make the dramatic decision to shut down Sydney’s rail network.
Mr Elliott,who was in Darwin at the weekend for a veterans’ ministers meeting,said he became aware of the decision late on Sunday night,which he described as an “operational” one.
While accepting that the “buck stops with me”,the Transport Minister sheeted blame for the shutdown on rail union officials,whom he accused of “deliberately” failing to turn up at Sunday night’s hearing because “they knew that was going to be the trigger for their industrial action”.
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“The public are pretty upset with the union. It has been a long time since the city was brought to a standstill with zero notice,” he said. “I don’t think the electorate as a whole is going to cop this sort of industrial bastardry.”
His line of attack was echoed by Premier Dominic Perrottet,who also blamed the citywide shutdown on the unions,despite Sydney Trains making the final decision to suspend services.
It prompted Labor leader Chris Minns to fire back at the government by accusing Mr Elliott of “pouring petrol on a combustible situation” and refusing to talk and fix a situation that had left thousands of commuters stranded on Monday.
The Rail,Tram and Bus Union’s long-time NSW secretary,Alex Claassens,described the decision to shut the rail network as a “dummy spit”,and said the ball was now firmly in the government’s court.
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