'So, so thrilled': Bus drivers celebrate milestone pay deal

Sunday, 13 September 2020

Bus drivers have engaged in a series of protests over recent years in the fight for the living wage.

Bus drivers are ecstatic over milestone living wage pay deal after years of protests and union fights.

Transport Minister Phil Twyford announced a deal which would see Waka Kotahi NZTA top up pay packages to ensure all urban bus drivers are paid the living wage.

Urban bus drivers will move from around $19.70 per hour to base rate of at least $22.10 per hour, almost $100 more per week before taxes.

Twyford called it “a step forward for drivers who for too long have been underpaid for what is an important and demanding job.”

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Raeleen Brunel, a former bus driver and now drivers advocate in the Bay of Plenty, said she was “thrilled”.

Raeleen Brunel said the living wage would make a huge difference to her and her bus driver husband, John.

“I’m very, very happy,” she said.

A Labour day bus driver protest on Cuba Street, Wellington in 2018 was one of a series of strikes over fair pay.

“I’m really pleased that the Government has recognised the appalling pay conditions…The value of these essential service workers has been under-recognised for too long.”

Her husband John is employed as a bus driver. She said the pay increase would make a major difference to their lives.

Bus drivers were considered an essential service during the Covid-19 lockdown, but they are barely paid above minimum wage.

“Our quality of life will be so much better,” she said.

“We will be able to have the grand kids over more. We’ll be able to take them to the movies when previously we couldn't afford to. We’ll be able to afford the petrol to go see the grandkids, we’ll be able to afford to feed them and have them over, which is an extra expense.”

First Union organiser Graham McKean said it would make a major difference in attracting and keeping drivers.

Bus companies are in direct competition with the trucking sector, which can often pay $5 more an hour more for similar work.

Bus drivers are required to keep their licences and qualifications up to date, have to pass random alcohol and drug tests, and some have to get a yearly medical test – all for a job which paid only marginally above minimum wage.

“Without these essential workers, we would plummet, crash, and burn as a society,” he said.

A change to the tendering for bus contracts in recent years had seen a race to the bottom in terms of wages, he said.

“It’s a totally flawed model that support the companies that pay less. It means they’re not competing on service level or relationship building, just price. Companies that pay poorly get the contracts and good companies have to drop their labour costs.”

The new deal with NZTA will see bus companies continue to pay the same wages as before, with NZTA making up the difference.

Richard Wagstaff, of the Council of Trade Unions said it was “a big start”, but wanted to see more structural changes, so contracts weren't awarded to bus companies which applied downward pressure on wages.