Bus drivers will work for at least next week

Auckland commuters will be spared any gridlock-inducing bus-service stoppages for at least the next week.

Representatives of drivers from Auckland's main bus fleet - NZ Bus - yesterday went back into talks with bosses from the Infratil-owned company, as bus services resumed after a seven-day lockout.

But parties to the previously stalled pay talks failed to reach agreement.

Direct talks between the two parties are set to resume next Friday.

The company has previously offered pay rises totalling $1.80 an hour in three instalments over a three-year period, against a union demand for the same amount in two stages over 29 months, plus an increase in the overtime rate from time and a quarter to time and a half.

NZ Bus currently pays $14.05 to $16.75c an hour, and overtime at time and a quarter.

Combined Unions spokesman Karl Anderson told the Herald yesterday's meeting was "the death knell of the [Employment Relations Authority-ordered] facilitation talks", held after NZ Bus initiated the lockout.

And little headway was made, he said. "We just didn't have sufficient time to make much progress."

NZ Bus has lost $1.1 million in subsidies for failing to provide bus services for the duration of the lockout, and workers are out of pocket by an estimated $1.15 million.

Mr Anderson would not confirm whether worker representatives had sought to have those wages repaid.

However, it was the union's opinion that the money should be paid, as the workers' threatened work to rule - which prompted the NZ Bus lockout - was not sufficient alone to have stopped bus services.

NZ Bus spokeswoman Megan McSweeney refused to discuss yesterday's talks, but confirmed bus services were safe at least for the next seven days.