Mediation and Conciliation in Collective Labor Conflicts in Australia

Abstract

In January 2018, Australia's national industrial relations tribunal, the Fair Work Commission ("the Commission"), mediated a high profile dispute between railway workers and management in New South Wales (NSW), the most populous of Australia's states. Most of the rail workers were represented by two unions, Professionals Australia (covering professionals and managers), and the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU). These unions, with some smaller unions and supported by the union peak body, bargained as a single group, the Combined Rail Unions (CRU). The employers, Sydney Trains and NSW Trains, were both government owned and also bargained together. The dispute formally began in July 2017 when, in the collective bargaining process, the CRU presented to employers an initial list of demands for improved wages and working conditions. Management responded with their own demands. Subsequent negotiations were conducted almost weekly. A failure to agree on a number of central issues (including pay increases, redundancy and redeployment provisions, and rosters) led the parties to seek the intervention of the Fair Work Commission. This came through four separate actions, involving three different tribunal members on the panel responsible for the transport industry. First, in mid-November, the CRU made an application for a 'good faith bargaining' (GFB) order. In other words, the unions sought an order to require the employers to bargain as required in the legislation, including disclosing relevant information