RAILTRAIN NSW OPERATIONS EA UPDATE: RTS WAGE RATES SHAME & LIES 

 On 23 February 2023 Railtrain Services (RTS) sent a bargaining notice to employees advising that it had provided the RTBU with a Rates Package for inclusions in the RTS NSW EA. 

The Union can confirm that it has now received the company’s pitiful and deceitful wage offer. 

The so-called ‘wage offer’ contains wages only fractionally above those contained in the Rail Industry Award. But RTS says not to worry, because you are all on IFA’s that they commit to increasing in line with WPI (currently 3.3% or a 5% wage cut in real terms – not including all those years where no pay rises were offered). 

This Union rarely encounters such blatantly underhanded and deceitful behaviour. 

If RTS were serious about protecting your IFA rates those would be the rates that would be included in the EA. The reason RTS doesn’t not want those rates in the EA is due to the fact that an IFA can be cancelled without your consent on 28 days’ notice. 

This is not the purpose for which IFAs are supposed to be created. They are not a business tool to avoid proper industrial instruments, but rather a tool to provide flexibility in the workplace for the few employees who require it. Having everyone sign an IFA with their employment contract makes its plain that Railtrain has bastardised this purpose. 

This should not come as a surprise, Railtrain are notorious for their anti-worker antics and ‘corporate manipulation’, having been uniquely admonished by the Fair Work Commission previously for their plainly deceitful conduct in bargaining for other agreements. 

This latest round of lies and deceit from RTS should be viewed in the context of this embarrassing history (article – Railtrain’s History of Deception). 

In the context of these shamefully low rates, Members are reminded that Railtrain continues to persevere with their unfair Training Bond program, that squeezes money from vulnerable employees leaving them trapped and in financial distress. The Union has been advised of some former employees who have been pursued so aggressively by Railtrain for a Training Bond Debt that they have been left in a state of despair and hopelessness – having to borrow from friends and max out credit cards just to get the debt collectors off their backs.

Is this an organisation you can really trust to honour rates contained in an agreement they can cancel at any time? 

Members should let Railtrain know that the RTS NSW EA is unacceptable and that the rates of pay contained in it are shameful. 

In response to changing economic conditions and recent legislative changes, the Union will be updating its log of claims to increase its financial claims. 

Members should not be afraid to vote this proposal down if RTS is ever bold enough to put this pitiful offer to a vote. Recent changes to the Fair Work Act will mean that Members have a better chance of improving their pay and conditions by continuing to bargain – there’s even the possibility of RTS members being able to join industry EAs with rates of pay equal to established operators in the near future. 

If Railtrain wants to tie you up in an EA, so that you miss out on bargaining with the benefit of these upcoming changes, they are going to have to PAY FOR IT, and really change their attitude and come up with a much better proposal. 

Stay tuned, these changes mean its an incredibly exciting time for all RTBU labour hire members! If you’re not a member and you don’t want to miss out on these beneficial changes, sign up today by scanning the QR code in the attached bulletin.

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