Visit the 
Visit the NSW Government pulls a dirty legal trick
Dear Members,
Last Thursday, the Minister for Transport David Elliott made direct threats against our members, specifically Station Staff, regarding the lawful action we were planning to start next Wednesday, 21 September 2022.
He said that he would “charge, prosecute, and sack” anyone that participated in this
industrial action. He then went onto say that he would direct “police action” against
members.
Any threat to the freedom or livelihoods of our members is something we all take very
seriously and not something we can ignore or simply attribute to a man that clearly does not think before he speaks.
In the dead of the night last night, at 0016hrs to be precise, the NSW Government’s lawyers served us with an application for orders to stop our actions going ahead.
The specific actions were:
1. Station Staff leaving all gates open.
2. Station Staff turning off opal machines.
Far from the actions being in any way “illegal”, the government is arguing a technicality that RTBU members had not approved this type of industrial action taking place.
We’re confident that they’re wrong, however, if they are right, a court order would be made that would significantly affect our ongoing campaign for a fair and reasonable agreement and put at risk everything we’ve won so far.
It would potentially remove any right to take any further industrial action at all!
There is an easy way to fix this, and we’re working on that now. We have to continue to be strategic and outmanoeuvre the NSW Government and Management.
However, from 2359hrs tonight, the industrial action of keeping all gates open will cease to apply. Station Staff should return to business as usual when it comes to the gates (NOTE: the wide gate array action will continue to apply).
Further, the action of turning off the opal machines will now not go ahead on Wednesday.
Station Staff are currently at the forefront of this fight against a Government that simply does not care about us, or any other frontline workers. We should be proud that we have driven the Government to the point where Ministers are acting like spoilt children in front of the news camera, and that they’ve been pushed to the point where they have no other option to resort to such dirty tricks and threats to try and counter our campaign.
We will also send a text message to all Station Staff regarding this latest development.
In Unity,
RTBU NSW
Issued & authorised by Alex Claassens, Secretary, Rail, Tram and Bus Union – NSW Branch
Level 4, 321 Pitt Street,
Sydney NSW 2000
Tel: (02) 92642511
nswho@rtbu-nsw.asn.au
www.rtbu-nsw.asn.au
17 September 2022