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Sydney commuters will be faced with a second day of train strikes this week, despite the New South Wales government delivering a deed it says will meet the rail union’s demands.
The state’s employee relations minister, Damien Tudehope, called on the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) to give up on upcoming industrial action on Wednesday, saying an agreement was close to being reached which would satisfy union demands.
However, Tudehope conceded the deed, regarding proposed modifications to a new intercity train fleet, had not yet been signed by either party.
The RTBU maintained it was too late to avert planned action – that will see workers on the City Circle and at Redfern go on strike – on Thursday.
Suburban trains will also run to a reduced timetable, with workers coming from other parts of the network to plug gaps left by striking colleagues.
This came as nurses and midwives union announced its third strike this year across the state’s hospitals, over staffing levels and pay, to take place on 1 September.
The long-running standoff with the rail union revolves around the government’s new intercity trains, a Korean-built fleet the RTBU says are unsafe and require modifications.
The fleet were designed for drivers to monitor platforms via CCTV, with a risk a driver would not be able to see if someone had fallen through the gap between platform and train.
On Wednesday Tudehope said a deed had been presented to the RTBU, which had been negotiated by the minister for regional transport and roads, Sam Farraway.
“This is something which the government has entered into in good faith,” Tudehope said.
“The union will not be taken by surprise in respect of any of the terms of the agreement which has been submitted.
Farraway said he’d met with the Combined Rail Unions and RTBU over the past fortnight and had collaborative discussions about completing a deed over the Korean-built trains.
The government previously sought to make changes to the Korean-built fleet contingent on finalising a new enterprise agreement, however the RTBU is not the only union whose members the agreement will cover.
The RTBU’s secretary, Alex Claassens, said before being presented the deed that it would be reviewed by the union’s lawyers and delegates – a process that would take 48 hours.
Claassens said that prevented the union from being able to call off any planned strike.
Nurses to strike on 1 September over safety concerns
Meanwhile, the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association’s general secretary, Shaye Candish, said nurses across the state will walk off the job – while maintaining life-preserving measures – for 24 hours on 1 September.
“This is in direct response to the government’s inaction,” Candish said on Wednesday.
The union wants one nurse for every four patients to ensure the system is not overstretched and patients receive the best care.
Nurses had put their own health and lives on the line for the community, Candish said.
“All they want to do is provide safe patient care and their inability to do that is actually making their job impossible,” she said.
“Frustrated” nurses and midwives were also demanding a 7% pay rise to keep up with the rising cost of living, and that “recognises the value” of their labour.
That’s more than double the government’s public sector wage increase cap of 3%.
Some surgical procedures could be delayed, but efforts would be made to ensure life-saving surgeries proceed, Candish said.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said on Wednesday the government had invested more than any other state in building and upgrading hospitals over the last decade.
But Candish said the government has not been “open at all” to negotiating over urgently needed staffing.
“This health system will look fundamentally different if we don’t see the government making real and genuine investment in nurse and midwives workforces,” she said.
While the nurses dispute centres on staffing levels and pay,
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