As announced by the Government this week, the Sydney Metro City & Southwest will not open on the 4thof August. As cited inSitrep 44, the FBEU have strongly opposed the State Government’s hard deadlines for this project. A position formed due to the inability of Sydney Metro and the operator (MTS) to clean up their act.
This week the media called us ‘union thugs’ and accused members of sabotaging the August 4thmilestone for the Minns Government.Here’s what the media didn’t say:
The FBEU don’t certify this project, the Office of the National Rail Safety Regulator (ONRSR) do. The regulator is apolitical, independent, and doesn’t work to political deadlines.
Certification hasn’t happened because the project isn’t up to scratch.
That which is unsafe for firefighters is unsafe for the commuting public. The FBEU take this very seriously.
Sydney Metro have repeatedly tested the resolve of FBEU members, on more than one occasion attacking our safe working conditions. The FBEU rose to every occasion, and we won.
Last week, an agreement was reached with FRNSW to facilitate a further four cross-agency exercises on Metro lines this week. The exercises were appraised by a level 3 FRNSW assessor, with the results significantly important to attempts at resolving the ongoing consultation dispute referred to inSitrep 44. The fourth and final exercise, an uncontrolled evacuation drill at Barangaroo, occurred yesterday afternoon. The exercise demonstrated acomplete failure of the operator’s emergency management plans.Despite the MTS Operations Centre providing confirmation of a rescue power outage (RPO), an FBEU member received an electric shock from the train’s manual evacuation door. Luckily, the member was treated onsite and is safe. Both Safe Work NSW and ONRSR have been made aware of the situation. MTS state that the cause was a ‘stray current’. This explanation is completely unacceptable. The FBEU has called for an independent investigation into the matter to be conducted by an electrical engineer.
As I have said at length across the media this week, the action that we’re taking is to keep commuters and firefighters safe. We won’t hesitate to take further action if this mess isn’t cleaned up.
