Negotiations for an RSS Enterprise Agreement have been ongoing since May last year. Whilst progress had been made  in the last few weeks, recent promises have been broken, leaving members feeling frustrated at a critical time in  negotiations.  

Rail Train Management promised that Members would have a Pay proposal, which included an overtime and Public  Holiday rate by Friday 18th March 2022, also Members were also advised that a completed draft Enterprise Agreement  would be made available by Wednesday 23rd March 2022. 

At the time of writing, members and the Union are yet to receive any Pay proposals or an updated Enterprise  Agreement.  

At a site meeting last week with RTBU Locomotive Division Members and EA Delegate’s, it was clear that Members  across the Rail Shuttle Services St Mary’s Depot have had enough of Rail Train Management’s promises and have fully  endorsed the taking of Protected Industrial Action to hold them to account. 

This endorsement has not come lightly from Members, who have been bargaining and genuinely trying to reach  agreement for nearly a year before endorsing industrial action. 

While the Fair Work Commission has assisted in reaching agreement with respect to some items, it was up to  Members and Rail Train Management to sort out the remaining items, and broken promises are frustrating this  process. 

Well, enough is enough. Rail Shuttle Members just want: 

• A decent wage
• Decent pay increases each year
• Decent overtime rate for working RDO’s and excess hours; and
• A decent Public Holiday rate when working Public Holidays – just like everyone else

Members have expressed their concern that they are working Pacific National trains, trains that have Pacific National’s  branding, and servicing Pacific National’s customers – and they should be on a Pacific National Enterprise Agreement, with appropriate conditions that have been fought over many years by Train Crew. 

Members know that this is a last resort to take Protected Industrial Action just to have a reasonable Enterprise  Agreement like everyone else in the industry. 

The RTBU Locomotive Division will lodge the Application for a Protected Action Ballot Order today. It is important that all RTBU Union Members vote YES for every action. Once the Protected Industrial Action Ballot has been voted up,  there will be another meeting to establish what, which and when any item on the list will be taken.