Bus disruptions to hit Auckland Christmas shoppers

NZ Bus has yet to determine what skeleton services can keep running that day. Photo / iStock

Aucklanders relying on buses for late Christmas shopping face disruption from a stopwork meeting by drivers on December 22.

Although the meeting will be during off-peak hours, from 11am until 1pm, drivers need time to get to and from it and NZ Bus has yet to determine what skeleton services can keep running that day.

The meeting has been called by the Auckland Tramways Union and the First Union on behalf of about 1000 drivers and service staff, after their receipt of a pay offer which falls short of their claims on wages and working hours.

Notice of the meeting to the company says that if it agrees to provide buses to and from the meeting at Mt Eden War Memorial Hall, "we will guarantee a prompt return to work."

Tramways president Gary Froggatt today [Tues] denied the unions were timing the meeting to disrupt Christmas shopping, saying they were legally bound to leave some drivers on the job and the company had taken its time making a pay offer since the expiry last month of his members' collective employment contract.

He noted the company also employed about 100 non-union drivers.

He similarly denied a claim by an anonymous correspondent in email to the Herald that negotiations had broken down, but acknowledged there was a considerable gap between the parties.

Mr Froggatt said further industrial action was possible, but that would not be before Christmas and would depend on instructions from union members at the meeting.

He said the unions were seeking a 2.95 per cent pay rise on hourly rates now starting at $16.37c for new drivers and rising to $20.40c after nine months.

That compared with what he said was an offer of 0.75 per cent from the company, which is Auckland's largest bus operator by far.

Another big point of difference was on working hours, after controversial roster changes by the company in July which put most drivers on rotating shifts.

The unions, which are challenging the changes before the Employment Relations Authority, want a mixture of rotating and non-rotating shifts and a reduction of the daily maximum span of working hours from 13 to 12.

Mr Froggatt said the effect of the roster changes had been dramatic.

"It has disrupted the lifestyles of a lot of people - it doesn't suit them, they're all upset and they want some changes," he said.

NZ Bus northern operations manager Shane McMahon said he needed to work with Mr Froggatt through arrangements for December 22 before indicating what services could be kept running.

"It will probably be two days before we will have locked it down," he said.

"It's premature to say what we're doing because we're just working through some options with them [the unions]."

Mr McMahon would not comment on differences between the parties, saying "we're right at the early stage of bargaining.

"It's not a good look [to comment] - it's not respectful to the other side."