Sydney Trains staff and their relatives are circumnavigating a media ban on employees talking to reporters by using social media to respond to criticism from the state government.
As commuters in Australia's most populous city faced more uncertainty over rail services, Sydney Trains staff went to work on Monday instead of participating in a planned 24-hour strike that was deemed unlawful by the Fair Work Commission.
The first large-scale use of social media occurred before the union's "soft" industrial action – overtime bans and workers calling in sick – began. A Reddit user claiming to be a Sydney train driver published a post on January 11 with a warning: "this is not going to get better."
People claiming to be relatives of Sydney Trains staff have also taken to Twitter to defend the workers, who they say are unable to speak out for fear of losing their jobs.
BuzzFeed News spoke with multiple staff who said they were wary of talking to media because of threats from senior Sydney Trains staff.