Striking bus drivers plot 'fare-free' day

Bus drivers in Auckland may refuse to collect fares as part of their long-running wage dispute, their union said yesterday.

The Stagecoach drivers are holding a stopwork meeting today between 9.30am and 2.30pm to discuss an improved pay offer, which the company tabled at negotiations yesterday.

But if they reject the offer, they will consider holding a "fare-free" day, in order to hit management while not antagonising the public.

Today's action is expected to prevent more than 30,000 passenger trips, although Stagecoach will try to keep some inner-city Link services running with a handful of non-union drivers.

Negotiators for the 1000 unionised Auckland drivers will recommend they give three days' notice of any more strikes, but lead advocate Gary Froggatt said last night that he had told the company some may refuse to return to work from today's stopwork meeting.

The school holidays have removed the usual pressure at such meetings to get buses back on the road in time to take children home. Mr Froggatt would not disclose details of the offer, except to say it contained some "new components" lacking in previous settlement bids in the long-running dispute.

The drivers want their hourly pay lifted from $13.94c to $16, and more rest breaks, against a previous offer of a three-year deal starting at $15.

He said the drivers would consider whether to invite management representatives into the meeting to explain their view of the offer.

But he said that, if the offer failed to win support, the drivers would consider a range of tactics, including a possible "fare-free" day in which they would keep driving buses but refuse to make passengers pay for their rides.

He said the idea grew from a suggestion by some passengers that they support the drivers by holding a "fare strike".

Mr Froggatt ruled out holding such a stunt as early as on Anzac Day, when the company is offering free rides to war veterans, as that would breach an undertaking by the four drivers' unions to give three days' notice of any more industrial action. The company says about 120 Auckland veterans usually take up its Anzac Day offer.