Report Back on FWC Conciliation – NSW Trains Not Filling Authorised Vacancies

Bulletin: 5/19

To: All RTBU NSW Trains Station Staff Members,

Today we attended the Fair Work Commission (FWC) for a report back regarding NSW Trains failing to fill authorised vacant positions in accordance to Clause 20 pursuant to the NSW Trains Enterprise Agreement 2019. A brief background of the dispute is as below;

1. The RTBU negotiated an outcome in 2017 after being advised by NSW Trains that there would be station staff reforms that would commence in the new financial year in 2017. The station positions would be filled with via an EOI for short term secondments to enable members to be up skilled and get experience as Station Managers. However, NSW Trains did not meet their obligation by failing to advertise or fill the positions in a timely manner.

2. The matter was placed into dispute and went through the steps until the conciliation at Unions NSW, where NSW Trains stated that it was their intention to conduct a staff review at both locations and abolish the positions, we then escalated the dispute to the FWC.

3. We attended conciliation in the FWC on the 17^th December 2018 and NSW Trains argued that due to the length of time the positions were vacant and their intention to run a staff review it would not be of value to advertise and fill the positions. The FWC recommended that we have further conversations with our members and NSW Trains and report back to the FWC on the 16^th January 2019.

4. Discussions were held and our membership overwhelming indicated that the dispute should continue and the vacant positions advertised and filled as per the 2018 Enterprise Agreement.

5. Upon returning to the FWC for the report back today it was apparent that the Commissioner supported NSW Trains position in that he didn’t see the need to fill the vacant positions if NSW Trains are intent on abolishing the positions. He did however agree that there must be timelines as to when the reviews will take place at both locations. NSW Trains has committed to provide the timeline with the RTBU asap.

Clearly it is very disappointing that the FWC did not support our members’ view that the EA must be adhered to by NSW Trains. We will continue to try and hold NSW Trains to account and we encourage Members to immediately advise their delegates of any breaches of our enterprise agreement.