Auckland bus strike: NZ Bus services cancelled from Saturday
Friday, 6 December 2019
Bus services operated by NZ Bus on some of Auckland's busiest routes will be cancelled from Saturday as a result of ongoing strike action.
The company said its drivers who continue to participate in the strike will be suspended.
It comes after a new wage deal to try and finalise a new collective agreement with First Union and Tramways members was not accepted, Auckland Transport said in a statement.
NZ Bus had also requested strike action of not collecting fares be withdrawn by the unions. The unions are not collecting fares until Christmas.
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As a result of the ongoing action, services operated by NZ Bus will not run from Saturday.
The company operates some of AT's busiest routes along Dominion, Sandringham, Mt Eden and Manukau Rds, as well as other routes across the wider Auckland region and the LINK services.
Gary Froggatt, president of the Tramways Union, said the cancellations had come as a 'complete surprise' to its members.
He said the union was still considering a 'memo' NZ Bus had given them late on Thursday night and it was due to go back to the company on Friday afternoon.
'NZ Bus have gone behind our backs.'
With mediation due to begin Monday, Froggatt called on councillors to help them restore the relationship.
The union was happy to meet with NZ Bus on Saturday or Sunday if there was 'initiative', Froggatt said.
First Union's Louisa Jones said the cancellations and driver suspensions were an 'ill-timed and militant retaliation' from the company.
She was 'pretty shocked' to learn of the cancellations, given members had been engaging in 'passenger friendly' strike action.
'Our members will be without pay one week before Christmas.'
Jones said NZ Bus had made a 'lowball' offer of a 2 per cent rise in pay, which members had declined.
'The significant response was to continue on with strike action regardless despite the intimidation by the company,' she said.
'They live week to week as it is.'
NZ Bus said it could not afford to operate its buses without fares being collected and as a consequence drivers had been suspended.
It said it remained 'absolutely committed' to getting back around the table to fix the situation as soon as possible.
'We encourage the unions to come back to the negotiation table and lift the actions so we can recommence services.'
The cancellations escalate the dispute as NZ Bus will then face penalties imposed by AT, for failing to run services according to the timetable.
The monthly penalty and bonus system in the contracts between operators and AT has seen operators hit with payments of tens of thousands of dollars a month, in a schedule obtained by Stuff.
The schedule supplied by AT earlier this year, showed of 47 contract areas, operators in four were hit with penalties of between $22,000 and $14,000, during January.
Striking drivers are pushing to shorten the span of their working day from 14 to 12 hours, in addition to a pay rise.
Both disputes are about not only a pay rise, but also the long split-shift working days which the unions said were a consequence of Government legislation and rules.
The unions earlier this year successfully negotiated with the Government and AT to allow tea-breaks for drivers, but the wider issue of the length of working days remains unresolved.
AT said the journeys of NZ Bus users was 'likely' to be impacted.
Bus services operated by companies other than NZ Bus will continue as scheduled, along with train and ferry services.
Impacted NZ Bus services:
- School buses
- CityLink, InnerLink, OuterLink
- TāmakiLink
- 14T, 14W
- 18
- 20
- 22A, 22N, 22R
- 24R, 24W
- 25B, 25L
- 27T, 27W, 27H
- 30
- 68
- 75
- 82
- 101
- 105
- 106
- 110
- 122
- 125, 125X
- 128
- 129
- 162
- 252
- 253
- 221X
- 223X
- 243X
- 248X
- 295
- 321
- 650
- 670
- 751
- 755
- 762
- 774
- 775
- 781
- 801
- 802
- 806
- 807
- 814
- 842
- 843
- 871
- 923
- 924