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The dispute has caused major disruptions to Sydney’s rail network.Credit:Louise Kennerley

While rail unions claim the government has failed to bargain in good faith,the documents filed by Sydney Trains and NSW Trains ahead of a Fair Work hearing on Friday reject the assertions.

The unions launchedlegal action in the Fair Work Commission late last week in a bid to force the government back to the bargaining table after Premier Dominic Perrottet threatened toterminate an existing enterprise agreement if rail workers did not vote for a new pay deal.

The hearing is expected to run into next week and will be pivotal to the reliability of Sydney’s rail network,which has been plagued by sporadic disruptions for months due to the dispute.

In their submission,the state’s rail operators argue that they have met good faith bargaining requirements,and that the unions’ application fails to meet thresholds in the Fair Work Act and should be dismissed outright.

They also dismiss the unions’ assertion that they were forced to bargain with a revolving cast of government ministers who had inconsistent views and positions. “There is simply no merit in this allegation,” their submission states.

Furthermore,Sydney Trains refutes the claim that a government ultimatum delivered to unions last week came without warning,adding that a “desire to put a proposed agreement soon was foreshadowed” well before.

“Given the history of bargaining … it was reasonable ... to ‘draw a line in the sand’ and consider bargaining was at an end to allow for a vote of employees,” it states.

In an affidavit,a senior Sydney Trains manager estimates that a total of 44,000 hours was paid to delegates to release them their normal roles for bargaining.

The unions have warned in their filings to Fair Work that if the commission does not intervene,“there is limited prospect that the dispute will be resolved in the short term without very significant industrial disputation”.

They claim the two sides had appeared to be on the cusp of an agreement last week before Transport Minister David Elliott told them at a meeting on Wednesday last week that the government was withdrawing from bargaining.

The government has declined the unions’ offer to enter conciliation with the supervision of the Fair Work,and has insisted that bargaining has concluded.

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