Rugby league fans will be able to catch trains to Magic Round games this weekend, but should expect disruptions after an eleventh-hour attempt failed to resolve a dispute between Queensland Rail and unions.
The two parties are stuck without a deal on Thursday night after another day of talks at the Fair Work Commission.
The unions – most prominently the Rail, Tram and Bus Union – have been taking action as part of their negotiations for new enterprise bargaining agreements, with this week’s services running similar to a Saturday timetable as QR addresses a maintenance backlog.
On its Facebook page, the RTBU claimed it had extended an olive branch on Thursday, which had been rejected by the employer.
“In a sign of good faith we offered to QR a proposition to suspend some of our notified industrial action over the impending NRL Magic Round weekend, specifically the ban on special event trains, if they agreed to some sensible and easy to agree to movement,” the statement said.
“QR responded by telling us that they would get no benefit from lifting the action and rejected our offer.”
Queensland Rail rejected that characterisation of the meeting, saying it had been given “a fake offer and an 11th hour bid by the unions to save face after risking Magic Round”.
“They have actually rejected our claims to lift all protected industrial action,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
“It was too little, too late – our people have worked tirelessly around their industrial action to mitigate their impacts and run extra services for footy fans.”
The rail authority had already promised to run dozens of extra six-car trains despite the action.
The union said the talks were starting to make progress, and they still hoped they could secure “six new EAs that work for our members”.
One major sticking point for the unions has been Queensland Rail’s insistence they negotiate with unions as a bloc, rather than independently.
Last week, the Fair Work Commission said it had cautioned both parties against “using incorrect terminology in the media”, saying that it would only inflame the dispute and mislead the public.
“I discourage the unions from saying they have been ‘locked out’ when describing a s.471(4) notice and equally discourage the use of the word ‘strike’ when referring to a partial work ban,” a statement said.
Get alerts on significant breaking news as happens. Sign up for our Breaking News Alert.
