A New South Wales government has warned industrial action crippling the rail network this week has created a backlog of maintenance work which will take weeks to clear. Workers are back on the job after the Fair Work Commission issued an interim ruling preventing all industrial action on the train network until Wednesday.
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00:00Up to days of disruptions, things are looking significantly better on Sydney's suburban
00:06train network today. 93 per cent of services ran on time this morning. Now this is after
00:12the Fair Work Commission issued a temporary ban on the industrial action that was crippling
00:17the network. However, the State Government has warned it will take some time for things
00:23to return to normal. It says this week's work bans have created a backlog of maintenance
00:28work that could take weeks to clear. We will take some time to return full reliability
00:35to our system. That is because there is infrastructure that has not been able to be inspected or
00:43maintained as a result of these industrial bans. Commuters at Gosford on the Central
00:49Coast and Newcastle line have still experienced some delays today. Around 30 per cent of trains
00:55ran on time there and that's because critical maintenance work that was held up by these
01:00work bans in recent days couldn't take place until this afternoon. That work has taken
01:05place this afternoon so things should be running much more smoothly this evening. Now this
01:11is all due to a months-long pay dispute between the New South Government and the rail unions.
01:16The two sides have been stuck in a deadlock. The unions want a 32 per cent pay increase
01:21for rail workers over four years. The State Government's latest offer was 15 per cent
01:26over four years including an extra 1 per cent in super. The Transport Minister has confirmed
01:32there has been a development on this front. The unions in the past 24 hours have put forward
01:37a counter offer. We don't know what it was but this is what she had to say about it.
01:42Of course if the unions were to put a counter offer that moves from their 32 per cent over
01:50four year claim and is reasonable and goes to pay and conditions and responds to the
01:57Government's offer. Our offer is a very fair and reasonable one of 15 per cent over four
02:02years. It also includes a package of conditions that would see workers take home pay and their
02:09experience at work improve and is a product of the months and months of negotiation that
02:15we have undertaken in good faith. Now if the union was to come to us with a written offer
02:21that responds to the Government offer of course, of course we would meet with them and discuss
02:26it with them. Yesterday the Government issued an urgent application to the Fair Work Commission
02:32calling for it to step in and put an end to the protected industrial action that was causing
02:37delays on the network this week. The Minister says regardless of what that counter offer
02:42is and how those negotiations go, this will be going to the industrial umpire. The two
02:47sides will be meeting on Wednesday and Thursday for hearings.