Workers may resume strike action on the country’s busiest rail network after a last-ditch attempt to thwart it failed in court.
Amid a growing pay dispute ahead of the festive season, the Federal Court previously paused planned work bans and strikes on the New South Wales train network hours before they were due to begin on December 9.
But on Thursday it lifted the court order after dismissing the state government’s technical argument seeking to invalidate the industrial action.
It opens the door for 8,000 workers to take disruptive action in the run-up to Christmas, ahead of several days of planned action from December 28.
Business groups have warned that even the threat of work bans and strikes will change consumer behavior and drive struggling companies out of business.
The tribunal’s decision comes after Treasurer Daniel Mookhey and Transport Minister Jo Haylen faced the Fair Work Commission on Wednesday and weeks of intense negotiations to resolve the pay dispute.
“Another cheap and desperate trick has backfired, leaving New South Wales families suffering through a Christmas and New Year marred by rail chaos,” opposition industrial relations spokesman Damien Tudehope said after the court decision. .
“(Prime Minister) Chris Minns is not only out of his depth, he has run out of excuses.”
Immediately after the decision was made, leaders of the Railway, Tram and Bus Union said they were considering their next steps.
The government abandoned its attempt to reinstate the court order, pending appeal, after seeing skepticism from Judge Michael Wheelahan and discontent from unions.
Any appeal is not likely to be heard for another week, the court was told.
“(That) would effectively deprive the union of its success,” lawyer Leo Saunders, for the combined rail unions, told the court.
The judicial skirmish is the latest front in a wage war that began in April.
The combined unions representing 13,000 railway workers have refused to budge on their demands for four annual eight per cent pay rises despite extensive and protracted negotiations.
The Prime Minister has said such a claim is unaffordable and could not occur while he denies nurses an equally costly claim.
The Transport Minister said on Tuesday the strike was “intolerable” during Sydney’s famous fireworks display, the rail network’s busiest day, with more than a million people expected to gather on the harbor foreshore.
Mookhey urged the union to accept the offer on the table, which he will not reveal publicly.
“This is not the time to play chicken with the NSW economy,” the treasurer said.
The government previously offered 11 percent over three years, including pension increases.