Divisional Officials meet with NSW Transport Minister

Divisional Officials met with NSW Transport Minister Andrew Constance last week. Important discussions were had to address some of the most pressing issues that the Union feels should be at the top of the Minister’s list.

These included:

• Giving unending employee passes for STA staff. Failing that, retaining employee passes at concession rates instead of losing them entirely after two years is a fall back position.
• Increasing the pay rise for drivers following state plans to privatise bus services. This is in spite of the wage freeze for public sector employees. The Union has made the case for STA staff to receive the full 2.5% that is normally afforded them, we’ll see what reasons the Minister uses to say ‘No’.
• Backdating the pay rise for any agreement reached to 1st January 2021. This looks quite promising, as both the Minister and Transport for NSW seem to be on board. Employees shouldn’t suffer because the government wanted to catch us in their wage freeze and delayed negotiations (they still haven’t started).
• Getting approval for STA to bargain for the Salaried and Bus Op Awards ASAP. Meetings with STA and TfNSW has given us some good news on some things and the work to include our entitlements where they fall outside of the award continues, but it’s important to note that we can’t officially bargain until the government gives them permission.

There’s definitely been progress with the Award process, but we’ll wait until we have things on paper before calling it a win. Members in STA should be thinking about how much they want to fight for a pay rise as this is looking to be an issue that comes to a boil early next year.