August 6, 2012

Bus talks fail to reach agreement

Wage talks for Auckland bus drivers have finished without reaching agreement, bus industry unions said today.

The Auckland Tramways Union and FIRST Union are negotiating for a new collective agreement with NZ Bus, to replace the current 2009-2012 agreement.

The two parties were not that far apart, however the company’s offer was unlikely to meet the expectations of Auckland bus drivers, said spokesperson for the unions Karl Andersen, FIRST Union Transport & Logistics Secretary.

“The last full meeting of drivers in early July sent a clear message to their negotiations to put the case for a better offer from NZ Bus. In our view the company have not met this with their recent proposals,” Karl Andersen said.

He said 3 days notice of a stopwork meeting has been given and drivers would attend the report back meeting this Friday.

“Our bargaining process agreement with NZ Bus provided for a cooperative approach to ratification of the negotiated agreement, in which the company would facilitate report back meetings to take place in off peak hours.”

“However NZ Bus said today that they were reneging on this agreement because negotiators were not recommending a settlement.”

“Given the importance of these negotiations to nearly 900 Auckland bus drivers, we need to make sure that as many drivers as possible can now attend the report back meetings, which will take place between 1pm and 4pm. It is a shame that the meeting could not have taken place off-peak as provided for in our agreement,” Karl Andersen said.

ENDS

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