WINZ helped struggling bus drivers during lock out

Drivers agreed to suspend their 'work-to-rule' action on condition the bus company lifted its lockout. Photo / Richard Robinson

Some bus drivers locked out by a contract dispute that halted most Auckland buses this week were supported by Work and Income New Zealand (Winz).

More than 80,000 passengers and 10,000 students had to find other transport to and from the city and schools as hundreds of buses sat idle.

The drivers were off work for a week when NZ Bus said their work-to-rule notice in support of their wage claim was a strike and locked them out of depots.

The drivers' unions said Winz viewed it differently, and financially helped some drivers who were struggling without income.

"If we had have been on strike we wouldn't have got anything," said Tramways Union spokesman, Gary Froggatt.

Under the law the workers' action was technically classified as a strike but the reaction by the company in locking out drivers was radical and totally unacceptable, he said.

Winz believed the lack of work was beyond the drivers' control, he said.

The drivers believed they could be locked out again if mediation talks, scheduled to begin next Friday, failed.

The drivers returned to work yesterday after the Employment Relations Authority held facilitation talks.

NZ Bus agreed to lift the lockout and the unions agreed to suspend their work to rule notice.

NZ Bus general manager operations Zane Fulljames announced in a statement today that passengers with weekly and monthly travel passes would get a refund on their tickets for the days when they could not travel.

The action cost NZ Bus $1.1 million when its $160,000-a-day subsidy was withdrawn by the Auckland Regional Transport Authority, which said the company had failed to meet the terms of its contract.

Drivers and cleaners were believed to have lost a similar amount.

The drivers and company are arguing over pay increases totalling $1.80 an hour and over what period they should be paid. The union also wanted the increase in their overtime rate.

The drivers are paid between $14.05 and $16.75 an hour.

- NZPA