TfNSW Mandatory vaccination policy – latest update, 18 February 2022

As the union has long maintained, there are other ways of making sure workers are safe than mandatory vaccination.

In a common-sense win, Transdev has committed to looking at these other measures (masks all the time, regular testing, physical distancing etc) and allow workers who have not been vaccinated to return to work. They will only return to work (once the company takes over) with extra safety measures in place. The union is not going to advocate anything that puts workers at risk.

We met in the IRC this week with TfNSW about payments and reimbursement of entitlements for people that have been forced to stay at home. Because the RTBU was focused on making sure drivers did not lose their jobs, that was the finish line we put forward to resolve the dispute. That has been achieved, but while the dispute was running workers affected should have been paid. We have another report back to the IRC Tuesday 22^nd Feb (next week) and have put it to TfNSW that the start date for backpay would be December 6^th 2021 (when the policy started) and finish early Feb 2022 (when Transdev told TfNSW that they would not enforce the policy).

If TfNSW accept this then that means affected employees will be backpaid at rostered rates for the period set out above (as if they had worked normally) and be re-credited any leave they had to take during that period. It would not keep people getting paid between now and April 3 when Transdev takes over. As we’ve said, the priority was to keep people’s jobs first and paid second; the cost of achieving the first was not being able to cover people the entire time between now and transition.

A dedicated bulletin will go out next week with an update after the IRC appearance.