Industrial action on Sydney’s train network suspended until 1 July after Fair Work Commission ruling

Sydney commuters have been granted a more than four month reprieve from industrial action on the city’s train network, after the Fair Work Commission ordered rail union work stoppages be suspended until 1 July.

On Wednesday evening, the Fair Work Commission announced that while it would not grant a six month suspension that the New South Wales government had requested, it would order all industrial action be halted until 1 July.

The break is to help unions and the state government strike a pay deal, the commission said.

Fair Work Commissioner Adam Hatcher rejected the Minns government’s request for a suspension until September, at which point the dispute could be settled by arbitration.

He said the NSW government and the combined rail unions had engaged in “mutual public recrimination” over recent industrial action, and he hoped the four month suspension period would reduce adverse media coverage and help the parties come to an agreement.

Hatcher said he did not believe the continuation of industrial action from the unions would help negotiations progress. Rather, he said it could push parties further apart, and so the four month suspension was in the public interest.

Work stoppages have been deployed by a handful of rail unions who have been locked in negotiations with the state government for nine months, since their last pay deal expired in May 2024.

A deal seemed imminent on 12 February before talks broke down after the unions raised a one-off $4,500 payment to all staff for coming to an agreement.

Rail unions said the payment was part of their last enterprise deal and claimed it should have carried over into the new one.

But the government said the unions had not raised the payment at any point during negotiations before mid-February, and that the payment should never have been assumed as it was only included in the previous deal to cover back pay.