Bus stoppages to persist if no pay offer

Tens of thousands of Auckland bus passengers disrupted by a stopwork meeting yesterday face more frustration in coming weeks unless drivers receive a new pay offer.

Hundreds of drivers from four unions voted for a campaign of disruption due to escalate on Tuesday - the first business day after the Easter break - against the Stagecoach bus company.

Taxis ran hectic schedules while all but the company's central Auckland Link buses were off the road for about four hours from 11am to 3pm, halting services to more than 30,000 between-peak passengers, although schoolchildren were unaffected.

The drivers have already begun working "to rule", and voted yesterday to refuse voluntary overtime and abandon the last trips on their shifts from Tuesday.

Combined unions spokesman Gary Froggatt would not disclose a third level of disruption planned for that day, before notifying the company.

He indicated that although it could mean delays, passengers would not need to make alternative travel plans just yet. But he hinted at a possibility of worse to come in subsequent weeks, although adding that drivers had given union officials a mandate to return to bargaining if Stagecoach made a new pay offer.

He said union negotiators would be prepared to work with the company over Easter if necessary.

Stagecoach operations director Warren Fowler said the company would welcome the unions back to talks as soon as they were ready and indicated there was more room for negotiation before an offer still on the table became final.

He said the unions walked out before negotiations had run their course and said the company was keen to have the drivers on side for ambitious plans to expand Auckland's public transport.

The company has offered a 12 per cent pay rise in instalments over three years, of which 7.6 per cent in the first instance would lift hourly wages from $13.94c to $15.

The unions want $16 now, and improved conditions such as morning and afternoon tea breaks.