New Intercity Fleet Update

Update 15

Dear members,

As you would be aware, on the 29th of January the Minister for Transport, Andrew Constance, sent the RTBU NSW written confirmation of his promise that guards will be kept on the New Intercity Fleet trains from their introduction.

Since then, the RTBU has continued to further its negotiations with NSW Trains to ensure that this promise will be upheld.

The RTBU and NSW Trains attended the Fair Work Commission again on Monday to provide feedback on the progress of these negotiations. Following that hearing, the NSW Trains employee update has now cast some doubt on the progress of these negotiations.

While we were informed that Traction Interlocking will be removed from the crew cab doors, the communication to employees suggests that this may not actually be the case.

Similarly, we had also been assured that a bell would be provided for the guard to utilise adjacent to the crew cab doors however once again, the correspondence by NSW Trains places this in doubt.

The RTBU has serious concerns that the correspondence provided by NSW Trains varies from agreed discussions and we will be seriously challenging these issues in our next meeting at the Fair Work Commission.

It has been confirmed that the Guard will be in a position at the crew cab door to “monitor” the platform interface and “signal” the driver at departure. However we have been informed that;

• The cab will not have passenger door controls at the crew cab door for the Guards utilisation as these will be located at the driver’s workstation.
• There will be no internal or external CCTV monitors located in a position for the guard’s utilisation unlike all other 4GT rolling stock as these will also be located at the driver’s workstation.
• As detailed design is set to be finalised, changes to the crew cab and its associated equipment will only occur if proven to be unsafe by validation testing.

The RTBU is contesting the above points with NSW Trains because they cast a shadow of doubt over some previously agreed terms, and seriously raises questions about the operational functions within the role of a Guard.

Whilst NSW Trains infers that in-cab cameras are agreed as they are only “considering the appropriate privacy and safety arrangements to reasonably restrict the use of in-cab cameras”, this is a sneaky use of wording as the issue of in-cab cameras to monitor the Driver has not been agreed and we have made it clear the RTBU is opposed to their introduction.

We will keep you up to date with the next steps but if you have any questions in the meantime please email us on nswho@rtbu-nsw.asn.au or call the office on (02) 9264 2511

In Solidarity,

RTBU NSW