Aurizon NSW Coal Enterprise Agreement 2025

Your bargaining team met with Aurizon’s negotiating team at Hexham on 29, 30, and 31 July to continue the fight for a better enterprise agreement.

Since the last round of talks, we’ve received reports that supervisors and superintendents have been giving their own accounts of what’s happening in negotiations. It’s disappointing, though hardly surprising, that much of what’s being said is nothing more than spin aimed at belittling the workforce and undermining your campaign to improve pay and conditions.

To be blunt, most of what’s coming out of management’s mouths would be more appropriately coming out of somewhere else.

Your representatives urge all members to treat management commentary with the same level of scrutiny as every other half-truth, distortion, and distraction they’ve dished up throughout this process.

Outstanding claims

Public Holidays

Your bargaining team has put a lot of work into clearing up the Public Holidays clause. These include:

Clarifying that, members will be paid for all NSW government gazetted public holidays.

Reversing the recent unfair decision to withhold public holiday pay on an X-day.

Increase opportunities for members to bank a DIL day.

We wait to see what Aurizon’s counteroffer is, so far, their only concern seems to be cost not fairness or clarity.

 A.I. & Automation

Aurizon claim they acknowledge the concern members have around potential job losses from

implementation of A.I. or automation of jobs. Despite this acknowledgement, they do not see the benefitor need to engage in early consultation process. Your delegates proposed a clause that ensures:

• Jobs are protected

• Member’s Rail Safety National Law obligations are observed and protected

• Members have a representative on any AI projects before rolling out.

• Sufficient support & retraining is provided where members choose to exit the business.

There has been no movement on this issue as Aurizon wants to retain flexibility. With time ticking your bargaining team have agreed for this clause to be placed in the bunker.

Workplace Representatives Rights

Still no agreement has been reached on workplace representatives’ rights. Aurizon continues to insist that the minimal protections in the Fair Work Act are “enough.” In other words, they are content with fostering a culture of fear and intimidation and remain unwilling to work constructively with workplace representatives to address the treatment they receive from management.

Rather than commit to clear, enforceable protections, Aurizon have expressed their desire is to push matters into the legal system, confident their deep corporate pockets will outlast those who dare to stand up to them.

Aurizon’s ideal world is one where no one questions their decisions, and those who do are singled out and treated differently. This is wholly unacceptable. Every worker deserves a workplace free from intimidation, and your bargaining team will continue to fight for real, lasting protections that empower members.

Your bargaining team thanks all members who’ve acknowledged the vital role workplace representatives play and continue to show them their support.

New Claims

Wages and conditions

Aurizon has presented your bargaining team with a sliding scale proposal where, as conditions are improved, the pay rise decreases. With this sliding scale, Aurizon wants you to believe that you have to pick between wages and conditions. Your bargaining team does not agree with this approach, your quality of life is not a bargaining chip. We believe you deserve both:

1. Wages that reflect the sacrifices of night shifts, weekends, and public holidays and unique industry.

2. Conditions that protect your health, time with family, and right to disconnect.

The first issue is the baseline starting point: an average 3% per year pay rise. Since the last enterprise agreement was negotiated, members have been hit with a massive increase in the cost of living, effectively resulting in a pay cut.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, since 2020: transport costs have increased by around 29%, insurance and financial services by 23%, and food and non-alcoholic beverages by 21%. In that same period, your pay has increased by just 10%.

Wage repair means more than receiving a pay rise a few months early. It means keeping up with the cost of living and reversing the erosion of your real wages. This is especially important considering Aurizon acknowledged that many of their customer contracts are linked to inflation. It’s hard to see how it’s fair that Aurizon can increase what they earn when inflation rises yet expect workers to accept a declining standard of living. Your bargaining team is currently finalising a claim that reflects what real wage repair and genuine wage protection.

What does the sliding scale really mean? Everything you fight for is a “cost”:

• Better rosters? Too expensive.

• Protecting your leave? Not “efficient.”

• Safeguarding health and fatigue management? Not profitable.

Aurizon wants a deal where you give up control over your working life, in exchange for a pay rise that doesn’t even fix the damage done. Your bargaining team rejects this notion. Workers deserve both decent conditions and fair pay and we will continue to push for an agreement that delivers both.

Stay United. Get Involved.

We need all members to stay sharp, stay connected, and push back against the spin.

If you’ve been hearing management’s version of bargaining, get in touch with a delegate. Get the real story. This is the time to be talking in rooms, group chats, and on the phone.

Remember, united members win strong agreements! Fragmented ones don’t.

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