Bus drivers claim pay deal protocols breached

Unions have found themselves listed as co-defendants with the Stagecoach bus company in a surprise legal challenge sprung by dissident Auckland drivers over a recent pay settlement.

The Employment Relations Authority has begun investigating allegations by three drivers, who claim support from 130 others, that bargaining protocols were breached.

They claim in papers lodged with the authority that a "sweetheart deal" was struck between the company and Tramways Union president Gary Froggatt, long before negotiations began last year, for which he was the advocate for the four driver unions.

Mr Froggatt, although restricted by the authority in what he can say about matters it has referred to mediation on August 3, strongly denies the claim.

The three legal challengers are Tramways Union members Byron Knight, Paul Carrucan and Brian Webb, who is the delegate for Stagecoach's big Wiri depot.

They claim Mr Knight was suspended by Stagecoach when he complained about an alleged lack of notice for a union meeting, called with the company's blessing to ratify the pay settlement that ended a bitter industrial dispute last month.

They have cited as defendants all the unions involved in seven months of negotiations, but the authority is understood to have struck the Council of Trade Unions from the case at a preliminary hearing held in private. The settlement was accepted by 73 per cent of 624 drivers and support workers at the ratification meeting, but the dissidents claim insufficient notice meant 309 union members were absent.

This followed two strikes which disrupted Auckland's main bus fleet for seven days, making a lasting impact on patronage hit by a drop in foreign students and competition from rail.

Stagecoach blames a 10 per cent drop in patronage since last year for plans to withdraw dozens of unsubsidised peak-time services, prompting an urgent assessment by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority of how many services it can afford to prop up.

Drivers finally accepted a 14.7 per cent pay rise, lifting their hourly wage to $16, but they had to take cuts to overtime provisions in return.

The dissenters have claimed in their initial statement to the authority that this has left those reliant on overtime in "an unconscionable position that is one-sided, inequitable and oppressive".

Although they have asked for the deal to be set aside, and for drivers to be allowed to elect new delegates to renegotiate it, they arrived at the preliminary hearing on Thursday to find that it had been signed earlier that day.

Section 163 of the Employment Relations Act prevents the authority from cancelling or varying a collective employment agreement.

But the authority retains power to examine whether there have been any breaches of a legal duty of good faith, either by the company or the unions, in the negotiation of an agreement.

Stagecoach lawyer Andrew Caisley confirmed that the deal was signed the day of the hearing, but he said it followed a prearranged meeting of all parties on Wednesday to finalise it.

Mr Froggatt said all members of the combined unions' 14-strong negotiating team were at the Wednesday meeting apart from Mr Webb, who he claimed did not warn the others either of his intended absence or the legal challenge.

Mr Carrucan said all parties knew of the challenge by Thursday, so they should not have signed the agreement.