The train line robbery: How Metro Trains underpaid its own workers

For four years, hundreds of mechanics and fitters who keep Melbourne’s train fleet running worked under a mandatory directive from Metro Trains management: they could not decline rostered overtime shifts.

While the shifts were compulsory, and allowed under their pay deal, paying retirement benefits on them was apparently optional for Melbourne’s rail operator.

An investigation by this masthead has uncovered a systemic, multimillion-dollar superannuation and leave dispute inside the taxpayer-funded private rail operator, which is among three consortiums awaiting being told next year if they have won the multibillion-dollar contract to run Melbourne’s trains.

The dispute has sparked a revolt among the hundreds of workers doing basic maintenance on trains – completing jobs such as checking doors operate correctly, ensuring all air-conditioning and electrics function, and replacing scratched windows and outdated maps from carriages.

The staff fight with both Metro and the three unions covering them has triggered months of Fair Work Commission hearings, the most recent on Wednesday. The dispute has forced the unions, which documents show were reluctant to stand up for some members, into negotiations to secure years of back pay.

Metro Trains would not confirm the amount it will pay back its workers, but this masthead spoke with several employees who expected to be paid anywhere between $10,000 and $24,000 in unpaid superannuation. That means upwards of $2 million will have to be repaid to between 200 and 300 maintenance staff.

Internal legal documents, leaked emails, recordings of tense union meetings and text messages reveal that in 2022, Metro Trains unilaterally capped employer superannuation contributions as applying only to 76 hours worked in a fortnight.

Then, according to Metro emails, the company instructed staff to work 84 hours per fortnight without lifting that cap, meaning no superannuation was paid on the additional hours.

While Metro declined to respond to detailed questions put to it about the underpayment, in recordings, industrial officers from the union representing rail staff say that Metro has now conceded it should have paid the superannuation – as it had for many years before.

“As of Thursday last week, they’ve agreed they’re going to backpay the super,” an Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union industrial officer was recorded telling workers at a rail depot last week. “The super on that component they stopped paying in 2022. Before that, they always paid it – so they paid it for [the] last 40 years.”

A letter from Metro’s workplace relations manager also says: “Metro is continuing to complete the superannuation calculations that underpin the commitment given last year in relation to this matter.”

The practice, which the affected workers labelled wage theft, has fractured the transport network’s rank and file, leading to bitter allegations of complicity from industrial officers at the unions covering Metro’s maintenance section: the Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU), the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union.

Leaked documentation shows that when workers first escalated allegations of underpayment to their unions, they were met with inertia and, in some cases, hostility because the wider issue of protecting rosters was the priority for the union.

When workers continued to press the issue, some were told to leave the union, according to emails from industrial officers.

‘Politely shut the f--- up.’

A whistleblower report submitted by a female worker at the depot alleged intimidation, and claimed she was instructed by union officials to “drop it” and “politely shut the f--- up”, and was later publicly mocked by an organiser in front of her colleagues after raising the issue.

In other emails and messages seen by this masthead, workers tell of unions shutting down their complaints over the issues. One worker said he had complained during a union meeting about superannuation and leave issues, and was soon after told by a Metro Trains manager his pay classification could be lowered.

Frustrated by the lack of representation, a group of seven rank-and-file workers bypassed their unions entirely and applied directly to the Fair Work Commission to take on Metro. In recordings of union meetings, industrial officers predict these attempts to take on Metro Trains will fail.

The RTBU rejected the claims and said it had fought hard to protect worker entitlements, as well as looking to next year when the existing workplace agreement expires.

“The unions have been jointly working through a resolution to this issue with Metro Trains,” an RTBU spokesman said.

“An agreement was reached in January, including an undertaking from Metro that back pay calculations will be finalised and paid before the end of the financial year. This is a great outcome delivered by unions for union members.”

Neither the ETU nor the AMWU responded when contacted.

At the centre of the dispute are the specialised rolling stock maintenance crews at Metro’s Bayswater, Craigieburn, Epping and Seaford depots, along with crews at the smaller North Melbourne depot. Under their roster structures, many workers are required to fulfil 12-hour shifts and average about 84 hours each fortnight.

Internal Metro emails state that “employees cannot decline rostered shifts which form part of the ordinary hours of work, whether they are paid at normal time or paid at overtime”. Allowing workers to decline would risk leaving trains unserviced, the rail operator says.

Despite the shifts being mandatory, in 2022, Metro’s head of safety and people, Robert Duvel, told maintenance staff that superannuation contributions would be capped at 76 hours per fortnight, after years of paying superannuation on overtime.

For four years, those extra eight hours mandated by management were paid without retirement benefits and the potential accrued investment earnings on those savings.

The rationale behind Metro’s position was outlined in a March 2025 legal memo sent to staff by Denis Brown, Metro Trains’ highest-ranking HR manager in charge of train maintenance.

In the memo, Brown argued Metro’s enterprise agreement with train maintenance staff meant superannuation did not need to be paid on overtime hours.

While Metro Trains refused to pay superannuation on overtime, it enforced a leave deduction policy when those same workers took a break that deducted leave hours on the basis that they would have worked an overtime shift.

Asked about the dispute, a Metro spokesman did not respond to a list of detailed questions sent about the Fair Work hearings and other matters including superannuation, back pay, citing the ongoing process.

Asked if there was concern that Metro faced a multimillion-dollar back pay claim, Public Transport Minister Gabrielle Williams said through a spokeswoman: “Every single worker deserves to be paid properly. We expect all operators to meet their obligations.”

Metro Trains is operated by the Chinese-owned MTR Corporation, based in Hong Kong. Its $9 billion contract to run Melbourne’s trains ends in November 2027.

It is bidding to retain rail contract against a consortium led by Acciona Rail and Tokyo Metro, and against another led by France’s public rail operator, RATP, along with John Holland and Downer. A decision on which consortium will run the city’s privatised public transport will be announced in March.

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