Member Update: January 28, 2022

Dear Members,

Welcome to 2022! We hope you had a great holiday season, and got to spend time with your loved ones.

With the situation surrounding the Omicron variant in NSW, we wish good health and a speedy recovery to those who are being, or have been, affected by it over Christmas and New Year.

We also acknowledge that members are continuing to be affected by the pandemic in other ways. Having a safe workplace with the appropriate health measures to keep you safe is important, and the RTBU is still calling on Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) to be implemented across the board immediately rather than in the 12 locations we had at the end of 2021. It is maddening that the NSW Government is sticking by it's "let it rip" attitude while simultaneously leaving workplaces to flounder and scramble for RATs to keep essential workers safe.

You'll find more information on workers' compensation and the Commonwealth disaster payment in the COVID Update in this edition of the Express.

That's why we're picking up where we left off with the same energy (and a little more for good measure!).

To EAs now, where negotiations with Keolis Downer in Newcastle are set to resume in February. More details will be given to members closer to the first meeting date.

We hope that you continue to stay safe and well.

COVID Update

With COVID numbers surging across the country, we are all being affected by the pandemic in ways that were unthinkable in Australia only a month ago.

Many members have either now contracted COVID-19 or have been forced to isolate due to being a close contact. This will no doubt continue over the coming weeks with more members affected. This is having dramatic effects across our community with supermarkets struggling to keep food on the shelves, and other critical industries struggling to operate due to staff shortages. Our industry is facing the same challenges.

Workplace Rapid Antigen Testing

As the pandemic rages on and Governments adopt a “let it rip” strategy, we are continuing to call for Rapid Antigen Testing (RAT) at all sites to ensure a COVID free workplace. We have been seeking the use of RATs since at least September last year, as have other unions across the Transport industry. Our calls have resulted in supervised RATs with follow up PCR testing being implemented at 12 locations across the state. This needs to expand dramatically. It is unfathomable that we are now in January 2022 with only limited workplaces using RATs.

The Government’s failure, yet again, to secure resources vital to our defence against the virus continues to put members at risk who have, for over 2 years now, continued to keep the state moving despite COVID. With a RAT taken before the start of each shift, members could be confident that their workmates and themselves are free from COVID and the virus is not being unwittingly spread.

If the Omicron outbreak has taught us anything, it is that testing is our best defence against the virus and is the best way to keep us safe.

Workers Compensation for COVID

In early 2020, the Workers Compensation Act 1987 was amended to provide a presumption for essential workers (including the transport industry) that if they were to catch COVID, it is presumed it occurred at work. As an illness (or injury) that occurred at work, workers compensation is payable. This is still the case, and sick leave used will be re-credited following approval by workers comp.

It may seem easier to simply claim sick leave for a few days off with COVID, however given that COVID can have longer term effects, it’s important to claim workers compensation to ensure you’re covered for anything that happens in the future. Now that the government has guaranteed everyone will catch it sooner rather than later with their terrible handling of the pandemic, you need to make sure you’re protected in the future.

So, even if your employer doesn’t advise you to claim workers compensation, you should. See your staff supervisor for a company workers compensation form and return it to them; if you have queries about how to fill it out, please see your delegate in the first instance.

Remember, this is only IF YOU ARE SICK FROM COVID, NOT IF YOU ARE JUST SELF ISOLATING.

Self-isolating will require you to use other entitlements like annual leave, long service leave, or possibly carers leave if you are caring for someone in your household who is sick as well.

Commonwealth Disaster Payment

Finally, should any member who is forced to isolate due to COVID and is not eligible to be paid by their employer, you should be entitled to Commonwealth Disaster Payment ($750). If you are in this situation and need assistance, do not hesitate to contact the office.

TfNSW Mandatory Vaccination Policy Update

This update applies ONLY to workers still employed by STA.

In respect to the TfNSW policy of Mandatory Vaccination, the Policy requires that by 6 February 2022, government employees are to:

provide evidence of being fully vaccinated (2 shots)
have submitted an exemption request from the requirement to be vaccinated (most of these have now been processed).

Any further actioning of the policy towards termination will be paused while the Fair Work Commission case is heard.

In a meeting today, TfNSW flagged that employees can now comply with the policy by having the recently approved of Novavax vaccine.

A declaration would be required (which they’re still sorting out), but we’ll have that early next week and will send out a special bulletin for members in Region 9 (the East) with instructions on what they need to do if they wish to have that vaccine.

Additionally, we have a dispute live in the IRC. This is on hold while we wait to see what the position of the new employer is regarding mandatory vaccinations for transferring staff. If the decision is made NOT to enforce mandatory vaccination, those workers will have jobs to return to after transition. If the decision is made TO enforce mandatory vaccination, then the dispute will go ahead to a hearing. On that issue as well, we’ll have news early next week.

Understand, this is a fight for people to keep their jobs.

The Union remains pro-vaccination and pro-choice. The union also understands that from a WHS perspective, vaccination is not the be all and end all of safety control measures that can be used to protect drivers from COVID in the current environment, ESPECIALLY when the govt took steps to let the virus tear through the community. There is no reason for example, why unvaccinated employees cannot wear masks, be regularly tested, and physical distance in the workplace to keep everyone safe.

Keolis Downer Newcastle EA Update to Restart in February

It's a new year and we're ramping up for negotiations with Keolis Downer. Meetings will start again in February.

To remind you where we left off last year, our last meeting with Keolis Downer was on Tuesday 14 December 2021. At the meeting, Keolis Downer explained their rationale behind their log of claims. Your committee has now taken this information away from the meeting, and have been analysing its potential effects on members, and whether there will be any benefits to come from it.

Accrual of Sick Leave

While STA bulk awards sick leave to employees at the beginning of the year, that is not how things normally work in the private sector.

In fact they’re not allowed to work that way.

The Award provides for accrual which means earning it as you work, just like Annual Leave. STA just gave it to everyone at the same time because it was easier to do when dealing with so many employees.

Expect that to change as the new companies take over.

Region 9 Letters of Offer

We ask members to continue to hold out on returning their letters of offer.

Again, this is all part of the plan that both the company and TfNSW are aware of, and there will be no negative outcomes for members for not returning their letters.

The company has put forward a document for the union to consider based on the Region 8 (Northern beaches) agreement. Officials and delegates will be going through that and sitting down with the company to discuss and sticking points. Once we have an in-principle agreement between the RTBU and company, members will be instructed to return their letters. It shouldn’t be more than a week or two.

Officials are visiting Region 9 depots next week to discuss the transition;

‘Accounting sham’: transport body set up to improve NSW’s budget bottom line could cost $4.1bn over the next decade

The Auditor General, Margaret Crawford, says ‘significant uncertainties’ remain over theTransport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) despite the state Treasurer claiming the ‘finances are accurate’.

The New South Wales government could be forced to spend another $4.1bn over the next decade to address “significant uncertainties” surrounding a controversial $40bn rail corporation it set up to inflate the state’s budget bottom line.

In comments attached to the state’s finances, Crawford noted that predictions outlined by NSW Treasury remained “highly dependent” on revenue which “may not eventuate”, and revealed taxpayers would need to contribute another $4.1bn over the next decade to satisfy accounting standards associated with TAHE.

The NSW government established TAHE in 2015 as a way of transferring the state’s $40bn rail assets out of the hands of the transport department and into a state-owned corporation.

Read the full article in The Guardian Australia.

Thanks for your essential work during a time of crisis.

In solidarity,

David Babineau and Daniel Jaggers