The Australian Federation Union of Locomotive Employees has taken Queensland Rail and Aurizon to the Industrial Relations Commission over a workplace safety matter.
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The notice cited two accidents at the rail depot at Phosphate Hill.
According to the dispute notice workers from Aurizon's Cloncurry depot perform shunt duties on the line at Phosphate Hill. Shunting is the process of sorting items of rolling stock into complete trains, or the reverse.
The track and infrastructure belong to Queensland Rail which has authorised access to Aurizon via a non-exclusive access agreement.
Under the agreement QR maintains the control of the network including maintenance of track and facilities to a safe standard,
QR has to authorise a shunt each time from its control centre in Townsville.
The union says the infrastructure and track at Phosphate Hill is not of a safe standard and a worker broke her wrist while performing the shunt in January 2020 due to uneven ballast and lack of appropriate walkways.
They said the shunt is always performed at night but there is no lighting and no appropriate permanent change pads.
After the 2020 accident the shunt was moved in a trial from Phosphate Hill to the safe QR-controlled yard at Cloncurry which they said was "a vast improvement".
However the union said QR refused to allow Aurizon continue shunting at Cloncurry unless they paid a "prohibitive fee" which they said effectively blocked Aurizon from creating a safe work environment.
The union served dispute notices on Aurizon and QR on April 12 but QR did not attend the dispute meeting.
As a result the union has filed the matter with the Industrial Relations Commission.
The union wants QR to commence consultation and change the worksite to ensure worker safety while it wants Aurizon and QR to eliminate "physical risks located at the site that caused the two accidents."
In statement QR said it had met with the related parties to understand the process in more detail.
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
