NSW Rail,Tram and Bus Union secretary Alex Claassens said the new measures were targeted at the state government’s coffers without affecting commuters.
“Obviously,we’re making sure that they’re going to be kept open and working the way we want them to work so people don’t have to pay,” Claassens said.
“We want to put pressure on the government and senior bureaucrats,not the travelling public. We’re escalating that particular action,and it will continue indefinitely until there is an agreement with the government.”
While the rail union last monthleft open Opal gates at most stations,the card readers on the machines were left on,which allowed people to pay their fares. The government last week said 90 per cent of commuters were continuing to tap on and off the network.
The new action will turn off the entire machine,which Transport Minister David Elliott said will cost millions of dollars in lost fare revenue. Elliott said the new industrial action was “economic sabotage”.
“Yet again,it is the taxpayers of NSW who continue to suffer the impacts of this union action. This is not about safety. It never has been,” he said.