Angry Stagecoach drivers raise stakes

Furious Stagecoach bus drivers have rejected the company's latest pay offer - and raised their own demands in response.

More than 750 drivers met at the Ellerslie racecourse in Auckland just hours after ending a six-day strike.

After voting down the latest offer in a secret ballot by 13 to one, they raised the stakes by deciding to seek a wage rise to $17 an hour in November on top of an immediate increase to $16.

The drivers will not take any more industrial action until June 7, after Queen's Birthday weekend, "to allow us to go back to mediation", said combined unions advocate Gary Froggatt.

"It is to allow a bit of calm to come to the city - we've had tremendous public support and want to thank the public for that. We don't want to lose the faith of passengers."

Stagecoach executive chairman Ross Martin said the new pay demand would add $8 million to the company's wage bill over 18 months and push it "closer to insolvency".

Stagecoach gets $35 million a year in subsidies from the Auckland Regional Council and the Government but Mr Martin said it would spend $24 million this financial year on new buses. Mr Froggatt said it was about time the firm ranked its drivers as highly as its other assets.

The drivers yesterday turned down $1200 cash in lieu of six months' backpay, but Stagecoach was unwilling to exceed $15 an hour this year. It pays $13.94 at present.