Bus firm looks to Samoa for drivers

Auckland's main bus company, Stagecoach, is recruiting drivers from Samoa and even looking as far as India to fix a worrying staff shortage.

Company recruiters have been in Samoa for more than a week with Immigration Service support, and hope to return today with pre-employment agreements from at least 30 new drivers.

This follows the recruitment of 71 prison guards from Samoa by the Corrections Department, which is short of 300 staff to run jails and needs 1800 more as new facilities open in Auckland, Northland, Waikato and Otago over the next two years.

Competition from roading and other infrastructure companies has pushed Stagecoach's annual staff turnover among its 1050 drivers almost to 30 per cent, at a time when it needs another 78 by April just to service new routes on the North Shore.

Three bus drivers from just one Stagecoach depot, Orewa, are understood to have left in recent days for jobs building the $320 million Northern Motorway extension to Puhoi.

The company has also begun investigating a proposal by a former driver who has returned to his native India and wants to train recruits there for jobs on Auckland buses.

It is also short of staff in Wellington, from where another bus company is competing with it for Samoan recruits.

Auckland Tramways Union secretary Gary Froggatt acknowledged yesterday that there were already large numbers of Indian drivers on Auckland buses and they were usually conscientious workers who supported union efforts to lift pay and conditions.

But he said Stagecoach, which is in collective employment negotiations with staff unions, should consider paying adequate wages to local staff before casting its net so far away.

"There are lots of people in New Zealand who would like to do this type of job."

He said the hourly wage had increased by less than $4 over 12 years, to $13.94, and drivers had to work long days to make ends meet if they were lucky enough to have full-time jobs.

Stagecoach spokesman Russell Turnbull said the company paid wages "far superior" to those available in many other occupations such as retail work.

This had proved attractive to many migrants who needed work until their educational qualifications were recognised.

He acknowledged heavy spending on infrastructure construction was squeezing the company's traditional recruitment market.

Migrants on way

* Stagecoach hopes to recruit 30 bus drivers from Samoa.

* Staff turnover is almost 30 per cent a year.

* The drivers' union blames an hourly rate of $13.94, abusive passengers, a high risk of being assaulted, and traffic congestion.

* The Corrections Department has offered prison guard jobs to 71 Samoans.