Drivers keep action plan to themselves for now

Auckland bus drivers are unlikely to say exactly when they plan to take industrial action, and exactly what form it will take, until next week.

About 1000 NZ Bus drivers and cleaners, represented by four unions, voted on Monday to issue notice of industrial action after unsuccessful mediation to settle a pay dispute.

The dispute has been going on for five months and the partieshave accused each other of shifting the goalposts in terms of their claims.

The unions had hoped to give formal notice of their action this week to NZ Bus, owned by Infratil, but Gary Froggatt, spokesman for the Tramways Union, said that was now unlikely until at least Monday next week.

The unions have not said exactly what action will be taken other than that it will be a "work to rule" - where staff work to the letter of the rulebook and no more.

The drivers' first proposed industrial action was work to rule plus the refusal to perform some extra actions.

That was met by NZ Bus saying it would lock them out.

Action was averted when NZ Bus made a new offer, but the two parties have failed to reach an agreement since then.

The unions say drivers earn between $14.05 and $16.75 an hour, with split shifts often keeping them away from home for long hours, and that a pay offer from NZ Bus was inadequate.

They considered the company's latest offer was a "backwardstep".

NZ Bus chief executive Bruce Emson said the unions had rejected an improved company offer of 4.2 per cent, 3 per cent and 3.3 per cent over three years, an offer he described as substantial given the economic climate.

He said the unions' claims were increasing and the gap was widening.

- NZPA