High Court rules in favour of QLD rail workers

Rail workers in Queensland have had a big win recently, with the High Court upholding a challenge to a decision by the former Newman Government that shifted employees into the state’s IR system.

The RTBU QLD was one of five unions that successfully argued that 6000 Queensland Rail employees should actually covered by federal workplace laws, as opposed to the state law that the Newman Government was trying to push them onto.

Moving the workers onto the state system would have meant the loss of a number of union negotiated workplace entitlements.

The High Court found that the attempts by the Newman government to apply the state law to the employees were invalid. The win means that unions will now be given back the right to be consulted, enter workplaces and to determine dispute-settlement procedures.