Premier Dominic Perrottet gives fare-free journey in bid to cease union motion

“They both give us a deed that they signal, which is the deed that we’re pleased with, and so they’re not linking into anything, or they offer us a fare-free day,” he mentioned.

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A ban on working foreign-built trains would pressure the state’s rail operators to considerably cut back the frequency of providers to about 30-minute intervals, making a weekday timetable much like that on a weekend. Overseas-built trains make up about three-quarters of the state’s rail fleet.

Of their first face-to-face discussions in months, Claassens and several other different union leaders met with Perrottet for an hour in Parliament Home on Thursday afternoon, the place the premier requested them to name off deliberate industrial motion subsequent week. Transport Minister David Elliott and Worker Relations Minister Damien Tudehope additionally attended.

The final time that staff refused to function foreign-built trains was in August, which led to the premier vowing to tear up his authorities’s offer to switch new intercity trains.

Tudehope also warned the union two weeks in the past that the federal government would rip up the supply if any of its industrial motion inconvenienced rail passengers.

Claassens mentioned the premier and different ministers had mentioned “plenty of stuff” through the years, and he hoped Perrottet would “suppose lengthy and exhausting earlier than he makes any of these choices”.

Whereas the federal government insists the brand new trains already meet security requirements, the rail union claims they are going to pose dangers except adjustments are made to surveillance cameras and doorways.

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