Transport Minister David Elliott slammed the industrial action as “unprotected” and therefore illegal.
“I will be going to the Federal Court to seek damages and repayments from the RTBU for the loss of revenue that will be lost by NSW taxpayers in the course of this action,” he said.
“I’m calling on the RTBU to set aside this action.
“You’re only endangering the lives of commuters and you’re only denying the taxpayers of NSW revenue.”
RTBU secretary Alex Claassens said the government threatening legal action is “proof” of an ongoing political fight rather than the two parties working towards an agreement.
“The NSW Government has shown time and again that they’re more interested in using taxpayer dollars on legal fees than they are in reaching an agreement that guarantees the safety of commuters,” Claassens said.
“The government is doing everything except sitting down and trying to reach a genuine agreement.”
Claassens said turning off the Opal card machines is the only industrial action that doesn’t disrupt commuters.
Elliott said the government isn’t seeking an injunction against the union action which means it will go ahead but they’re hoping the federal court case will be successful so the rail union covers revenue loss.
He acknowledged the “financial burden” the union would cop if the court case is successful and said this should be an incentive to end the strike action.
“It could be in the tens of millions of dollars,” Elliott said.
“The union needs to think very carefully about that because if they’re caught up with recovering the costs and loss of revenue, the union is going to be in a lot of financial trouble.
“I make no apology for that.”
Sydney Trains CEO Matt Longland claims the strike will impact customers as some readers will be operating and others won’t be.
“Customers that are tapping on at one station with a reader and not be able to tap off at another,” Longland said.
“When a reader is turned on, continue tapping your Opal card and we’ll do everything we can in the background with the Opal system to manage the impact of customers.”
Longland said the three-quarters of Sydney stations that don’t have gated Opal readers will continue operating, however, it’s not yet clear how many readers will be switched off across the state.
The ongoing stoush is over safety modifications to the New Intercity Fleet and changes to the enterprise agreement which stipulates pay increases.
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