Commuters face 7th day of disruption

Photo / Paul Estcourt

Disruption to Auckland bus services will grind through a seventh day as locked-out drivers meet this morning to consider a third-party recommendation on settling their five-month pay dispute.

The Employment Relations Authority will offer its recommendation to NZ Bus and unions representing 875 drivers and cleaners in time for a mass meeting of the workforce at Alexandra Park racecourse at 11am.

But that means another day of a lockout for the drivers and up to 80,000 bus passengers, in what has become the longest period of disruption to Auckland transport for decades.

The lockout, which the bus company imposed on Thursday in response to notice of work-to-rule industrial action from the unions, has exceeded a six-day strike four years ago - when its fleet was owned by British company Stagecoach.

NZ Bus, owned by local investment company Infratil, offered last night to lift its lockout from 4am tomorrow but only in return for the four bus unions withdrawing their notice and agreeing to work with employment authority facilitator James Wilson to reach a ratified settlement.

It gave the unions until 1.30pm today to lift the notice.

"We have confidence in the facilitation process and trust that the unions will join with us to get our buses back on the roads," said operations manager Zane Fulljames.

The Auckland Regional Transport Authority, which had given the company an ultimatum of 5pm yesterday to provide proposals for an immediate resumption of all subsidised bus services, said it was "pleased with the development of the lockout situation".

"We are pleased to see the commitment from NZ Bus to resolving this dispute and getting the bulk of Auckland's buses back on the road," said authority chief executive Fergus Gammie.

But combined unions spokesman Karl Andersen said he did not want to prejudge Mr Wilson's recommendation or the drivers' response, but the company's conditional offer to lift the lockout was "the same old rhetoric".

Commuters and tourists in Queen St last night were dismayed to learn the lockout would continue today.

New Caledonian resident Fabienne Montesinos and her daughter Fabienne, who is attending an English language school in Auckland, said they were forced to rent a car in the absence of buses.

German visitor Bastian Pfendburg was surprised to find himself in "a capital city" with no buses and was trying to enjoy Auckland's attractions on foot.

First-year university student Priyanka Patel, walking to catch a train at Britomart, said she had to rely on family members to drive her between the Avondale station and her Blockhouse Bay home while preparing for exams in three weeks.

Auckland University Students Association president Darcy Peacock said that many of his members were becoming distraught by the disruption in their final two week of classes.

"This is causing a lot of extra stress at a very stressful time of year," he said. "Some people are at the end of five-year law degrees, and engineering students have to present their end of year projects - there are people here who are really really worried."

Trains carried 48 per cent more passengers than normal in yesterday's morning peak, and Auckland City staff were issuing warning notices only - rather than fines - to the relatively small number of motorists filmed breaching bus lane restrictions.