Stop-work meeting for bus drivers to go ahead

Executive members of the Auckland Tramways Union and the First Union met yesterday to reaffirm plans to hold a single meeting on December 22. Photo / Nick Reed

Unions representing almost 1000 Auckland bus drivers intend to press ahead with a stop-work meeting just before Christmas, despite an alleged bid by their employer to block it.

Executive members of the Auckland Tramways Union and the First Union met yesterday to reaffirm plans to hold a single meeting -- rather than depot-by-depot sessions as sought by NZ Bus -- on December 22.

That is to discuss a company pay offer that they say falls short of drivers' claims on both wages and working hours.

But they will continue to work with the company to leave enough drivers at work to maintain bus services during the meeting.

Although the meeting is scheduled for the off-peak hours of 11am-1pm, drivers and service staff will need time to reach it from throughout the region, and then get back to work ready for evening commuter services

Tramways president Gary Froggatt, who with the First Union is negotiating for a new collective employment agreement, says members are "ropable" about a company bid to stop them attending the meeting at potential risk of disciplinary action if they refuse to stay at work.

NZ Bus northern regional chief executive Shane McMahon said in a memo to staff this week the company had not agreed to the meeting, and is understood to have warned another union official a failure of staff to work as directed could be treated as misconduct.

"An all-Auckland meeting will impact the public at a busy time of year," he wrote in the memo, adding it would not help the company in a tender round with Auckland Transport to continue running southern bus routes.

McMahon, who has since gone on annual leave until next month, has proposed a resumption of bargaining in late January.

Regional operations manager Darek Koper acknowledged to the Weekend Herald in McMahon's absence that the unions had a legal right to hold the meeting while working with the company to ensure enough drivers were left at work "to run normal business operations".

He said he would keep working with them next week to determine how many were needed behind the wheel and what roster swaps were required to minimise disruption to the public.

"We are still working on options to avoid any disruption to the travelling public," he said.

First Union organiser Rudd Hughes said he shared that aim, but was disappointed the company was not putting a higher priority on negotiations, given there had only been two days of bargaining so far to renew an agreement that expired on November 7.

"We wanted to get back to the table before Christmas, but for some reason our negotiations don't seem to be important to NZ Bus because Shane and [another operations manager] have both gone on leave at the same time," he said.

Froggatt told the Herald earlier 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 a company offer of 0.75 per cent.

But that is not the only point of difference in the talks, as many drivers are upset at major roster changes the company introduced in July, requiring most to work on rotating shifts.

The unions are waiting for a decision from the Employment Relations Authority on a legal challenge to the new rosters.