NZ Bus out to avert pre-Christmas industrial action

The NZ Bus Depot in Halsey Street, Auckland. Photo / Richard Robinson

Auckland's largest passenger transport operator, NZ Bus, has today begun talks with unions representing about 1000 of its drivers and service staff in a bid to avert pre-Christmas industrial action.

That follows the Auckland Tramways Union and First Union's distribution of ballot papers this morning seeking a mandate for a three-hour strike on December 22 unless they can gain company support for a paid all-up stopwork meeting then to discuss pay and working hours under a new collective employment deal.

NZ Bus, which prefers depot-by-depot meetings to minimise disruption to services, said last week that a refusal by staff to work as rostered "could be treated as misconduct."

It has since told the Herald it acknowledges the unions' legal right to hold an Auckland-wide meeting, as long as they ensure enough drivers are left at work to maintain operations.

The unions say they are prepared to work with the company to that end, and the meeting has been timed for the off-peak hours of 11am to 1pm to minimise disruption.

But they say they are running the strike ballot to protect their members from potential disciplinary action, in case they are unable to reach agreement with the company on how many drivers should be rostered to stay at work to operate a "skeleton" bus service.

The ballot is due to run until Thursday, for votes to be counted by the weekend.

One company employee claimed drivers were voting "in favour of direct action" in the ballot.

But First Union organiser Rudd Hughes said tonight that efforts would continue to run a stopwork meeting without having to declare it as a strike.

He said the meeting would be timed for when many drivers were "booked off" duty in any case, under split shifts, so he could not understand the company's concern.

"We are struggling to see what the problem is," he said.

The company could not be reached for comment.

As well as being apart on wages, with the unions seeking a 2.95 per cent rise against a company offer of 0.75 per cent, the parties are at odds over major roster changes made in July requiring most drivers to work rotating shifts.