Public will pay the price for wage rises, warns Ontrack

The public will pay the price if the Rail and Maritime Transport Union succeeds in winning wage rises of up to 17.6 per cent for rail track workers, track owner Ontrack is warning.

The union and Ontrack will return to mediation tomorrow morning following a week of overtime bans imposed by the union.

The ban has severely curtailed rail services, particularly in Wellington.

Ontrack chief operating officer William Peet said yesterday that Ontrack had instigated tomorrow's meeting in a bid to find out if the union was serious about negotiating and prepared to move from its original position.

"The union is claiming wage increases that range from 9.3 per cent to 17.6 per cent and up to 20 per cent on allowances," Mr Peet said.

Agreeing to those demands would cost Ontrack almost $4.5 million and that, in turn, could only come from track users.

"We would like the union to remember that rail in New Zealand has been on the seriously ill list for some years and only just made it into the recovery ward," he said.

"We would be extremely disappointed if the union's intransigence were to be responsible for a relapse."

Union industrial officer Scott Wilson said the wage claim would obviously cost the company, but that it should be regarded as no different to costs such as fuel charges.

"I'm sure they will pass that on to their customers but these people deserve to have a living wage," he said. Rail track workers earned, on average, $30,000 a year before tax and excluding overtime, Mr Wilson said.

"It's [the claim] bringing the rail workers up to the average rate of pay for a similarly skilled job in the rail industry."

- NZPA