Drivers get back to wage talks

Auckland bus operator Stagecoach will re-enter pay negotiations with drivers' unions today after breaking the ice at preliminary talks last week - the first since a bruising six-day strike.

But the company is not indicating whether it has a new pay offer to placate drivers seeking $16 an hour now and $17 in November.

The negotiations will resume before Labour Department mediator Keith Handley, who yesterday confirmed that tomorrow was also available as a reserve day if needed, but did not want to comment on any chances of a breakthrough.

The drivers added their claim for a second pay rise to $17 in the heat of a stopwork meeting after their strike three weeks ago, at which they resoundingly rejected an improved company pay offer.

Stagecoach offered a before-tax payment of $1000 in lieu of six months overtime, and an hourly wage of $15 with subsequent increases to $15.40 late next year and $16 in 2007.

Combined unions advocate Gary Froggatt said he was not at liberty to comment on last week's mediated talks, but disclosed that a June 7 deadline the drivers had set Stagecoach to resolve the dispute to avoid more industrial action had been extended. He said the drivers would not take any more action until after the Employment Relations Authority meets on June 14 to consider an application by Stagecoach for it to make a binding pay ruling.

Any such ruling would be the first in any industry under a recent industrial law change, but the company must first satisfy the authority that union negotiators have committed a "serious and sustained" breach of good faith, a claim they vigorously deny.

Stagecoach meanwhile says a planned visit this week by the chief executive and founder of its British parent company, Brian Souter, has nothing to do with the marathon industrial dispute.

Spokesman Russell Turnbull said Mr Souter, who will be in New Zealand tomorrow and on Thursday, came here routinely every six months and he had no intention of becoming embroiled in industrial relations in this country.