Sydney Trains Stations Health and Safety Representative (HSR) Training Dispute

Bulletin 17 – 2015

TO: ALL Sydney Trains Station Members:

Members are advised that the Customer Service Directorate – Sydney Trains’ has adopted a position that they will only send HSRs to Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) that they choose. The RTBU has challenged this and requested WorkCover to intervene as the decision by Sydney Trains to appoint a training provider that was not chosen by the HSR is contrary to s.72 of the WHS Act 2011.

WorkCover subsequently ruled that as Sydney Trains have “Government Procurement Policies” to comply with that Sydney Trains could continue to send HSRs to RTOs of Management’s choosing.

As a result of the WorkCover ruling the RTBU applied with the Governance & Appeals Unit of WorkCover for an s.224 “Internal Review”. See the extract from their response:

Your application for an internal review of the decision to not allow a HSR to choose own training organisation was received on 24 February 2015 and has been accepted. Pursuant to Part 12 of the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the Act) an internal review is now underway…

Please be advised that the above decision is stayed (suspended) while the review is underway.

However it would appear that Sydney Trains are yet again ignoring WorkCover “Stay Orders” as part of the internal review process. Advice has been received indicating that Sydney Trains has been sending HSRs to their appointed HSR training regardless of the pending internal review.

Further HSRs should be aware as the training arranged by Sydney Trains does not form part of your employment contract, and given that there is no legal requirement for you to attend the training, it is advised that you contact your union to obtain advice and/or further instructions on this matter should you be directed to attend HSR training arranged by Sydney Trains.

Should you require further information or wish to discuss this matter please do not hesitate to contact me by phone or email.