In response, the government issued so-called 471-notices against workers, meaning their pay would be docked if they engaged in industrial action. It led to hundreds calling in sick or failing to report for duty.
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But on Wednesday, in an at-times testy exchange between the unions’ barrister, Oshie Fagir, and Abbas, a senior transport official who has been heavily involved in the pay negotiations, Sydney Trains was accused of manufacturing the crisis in order to force an end to the industrial action.
Fagir showed Abbas evidence he said demonstrated that Sydney Trains’ own analysis of the impact of the go-slow action would have been “moderate”, and suggested that the decision to issue the 471 notices was “an industrial tactic”.
Abbas, who denied the claim, was also shown evidence the number of workers who had called in sick last week had been similar to previous years.
Asked about the impact of the recent industrial action, Abbas conceded she could not identify specific instances of crews driving 23km/h below the speed limit as part of a “go-slow” action.
She also disputed suggestions by the unions’ lawyer that the decision to issue 471 notices came from the premier’s office.
Rail Tram and Bus Union state secretary Toby Warnes, left, and president Craig Turner outside the Fair Work building on Wednesday.Credit: Janie Barrett
Abbas said the parties were not close to reaching an agreement when the $4500 bonus reared its head last Thursday.
However, Rail, Tram and Bus Union state secretary Toby Warnes said they came within a whisker of reaching an agreement, and “we were 1 per cent apart on year three”.
Warnes, a lawyer by training, said unions offered trading the $4500 bonus for a 1 per cent uplift in year three of a new enterprise agreement.
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He came under heavy questioning by the government’s lawyer about the union describing the 471 notices as a lockout. Commissioner Adam Hatcher also asked Warnes how it could possibly be described as a lockout.
Warnes said he believed the notices amounted to a lockout, adding the chaos on Sydney’s rail network last Friday was sparked by workers becoming worried they would be docked a full day’s pay.
In closing submissions, Sydney Trains’ lawyer Simon Meehan, SC, said at least a six-month cooling-off period from industrial action would be appropriate.
“This is not a termination application. This is all about cooling off,” he said. “What is the downside … of introducing a cooling-off period to see what could be achieved?”
He said there had been a distracting influence on the two sides from “all the media attention”, noting that remarks about lockouts had been unhelpful.
However, the unions’ barrister said a suspension would reduce the prospects of an agreement because the evidence had shown industrial action had resulted in bringing the two parties back to the bargaining table.
He said it was “extraordinary” that Sydney Trains believed a suspension of industrial action would promote agreement between the warring sides.
The government and six rail unions have been engaged in a bitter dispute over a new enterprise agreement for the past nine months.
Following last week’s chaos on Sydney’s rail network, the government filed an application under Section 425 of the Fair Work Act to suspend industrial action on public interest grounds so as to allow negotiations to continue on a new enterprise agreement unhindered by work bans and other actions.
Asked whether the federal government would intervene in the dispute, federal Workplace Minister Murray Watt said the power for him to do so was an “extraordinary one” and had never been used by any minister on either side of politics.
“What I have been focused on is trying to convince both sides to resolve this,” he said on Channel Seven’s Sunrise program on Wednesday morning before the hearing started. “I absolutely understand the frustration of commuters.”
Walking into the hearing earlier, Warnes said it would be an “absolutely catastrophic outcome” if the federal government intervened in the dispute. “The anger out there on the ground at the moment is palpable. I would imagine it would only increase that anger,” he said.
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