A NSW government plan to contract out Sydney road maintenance jobs to the private sector will disadvantage motorists and cause traffic chaos, unions say.
The state government has decided to outsource maintenance on most Sydney roads and is currently briefing workers on the plans, the AWU says.
The plan involves staff from the Roads and Maritime Service (RMS).
"The NSW government is committed to pursuing a range of options for working with the private sector with the aim of delivering better services at a lower cost and with greater innovation," Roads Minister Duncan Gay told Fairfax Media.
But the Australian Workers Union says the move to contract out up the 500 jobs will come at cost to motorists.
"The biggest losers of this recommendation will be motorists and the taxpayers of NSW," AWU NSW state secretary Russ Collison said in a statement on Thursday.
"RMS employees provide a public service and respond to emergency situations that are different every day.
"It doesn't take much to send Sydney's fragile transport system into chaos.
"Cutting back service levels in road maintenance ... will inevitably leave Sydney motorists stuck in gridlock."
Mr Collison said RMS workers were devastated to find their futures in doubt.
"These road workers provide valuable services that contractors simply can't provide, or will deliver at inferior quality and a greater cost."
RMS employs about 800 staff across NSW and has an operating budget of $300 million, Mr Collision said.
Mark Lennon, secretary of Unions NSW, said the government was going to an extraordinary length just to create business opportunities for the private sector.
"The new private operators of road maintenance work will need to make a profit. Clearly, that will come at the expense of motorists, the community and the workforce."
Greens MP and roads spokeswoman Cate Faehrmann said Premier Barry O'Farrell's privatisation agenda was out of control.
"Barry O'Farrell's savage cuts to the public sector are all about throwing as much taxpayers' money as he can to the private sector. It's got nothing to do with reducing deficits or increasing efficiency," she said in a statement.
Mr Gay, who will take the business plan to cabinet, said RMS workers will have employment with successful private tenderers.
"The RMS will still have areas where it does road maintenance but within the tenders for the two sections of Sydney they ... won't be putting a tender in," he told ABC radio.
"We believe, as with ferries, that the majority of people would take the offer to move to the new contracts."
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