“I’ve given up trying to say some of the concerns are valid, they’re generally not,” NSW Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes said on Monday.
NSW Infrastructure Minister Rob Stokes has accused the state’s rail union of bloody-mindedness as the government offers up a week of free travel for commuters in a bid to avoid another strike.
Ahead of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and the state’s transport heads preparing to meet with Rail Tram and Bus Union representatives in the Fair Work Commission on Tuesday, Mr Stokes has taken aim at the union over awhere he detailed the role the state’s wage policy and industrial relations framework had played in its infrastructure pipeline and the state’s ability to finance blockbuster projects.
“One of the things that we said was, ‘well, look, if you want a pay rise, you need to demonstrate some productivity benefits. How about your picnic day? Can you shelve your picnic day?’“So, they want to keep that, but they also want to get a pay rise when other people in the private sector and the people delivering the projects … aren’t getting a pay rise.
About an hour after union representatives confirmed on Friday that strikes were likely to go ahead this week, Mr Perrottet announced that travel on Sydney Trains would be free from Monday to Friday.The announcement came after NSW RTBU secretary Alex Claassens told the government it could avoid having rail services slashed to 30 per cent by making fares free for commuters on those days.“We’ve been going on for way too long,” he said on Friday.
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