‘Broken promises’

Weymouth bus bosses have been accused of ‘broken promises and bad faith’ as a further four days of strike action from (June 27) were announced  to follow on from this week’s strike in the ‘poor relations’ pay dispute.

More than 110 drivers, based at Weymouth and Bridport, members of Unite started striking yesterday (June 20) until just before 4am on Saturday (June 25).

 

Four days of further strike action have been announced, as Unite accused the management at First Hampshire & Dorset Ltd of twice offering to improve the pay and then refusing to budge once the talks convened.

“We are faced with an intolerable situation where twice in the last ten days the management have said that they would come to the table with an improved offer – and on both occasions they have not budged,” said Unite regional officer Bob Lanning.

“This dispute is being pockmarked by the management’s bad faith and broken promises. As a result, we are calling four more days of strike action next week as our members are very angry at the management’s duplicity.”

 

The strikes will run from at 4:30am  on Monday, June 27, ending at 4:29am on Tuesday, June 28; from 4:30am on Wednesday June 29 until 04:29am on Thursday June 30; from 4:30am on Friday July 1, ending at 4:29am on Saturday, July 2; and from 4:30am on Sunday, July 3 until 4:29am on Monday, July 4.

Weymouth bus drivers in Dorset and Bridport are fed up with being the ‘poor relations’ in the First Group ‘family’. Unite argues that First Group is a very profitable UK company that can afford to reward its Bristol drivers with a 13 per cent increase, but for its employees in Weymouth and Bridport  the deal on the table is only 2.3 per cent over two years from August 2015.

The Weymouth and Bridport drivers earn about £18,300-a-year – or £8.80 an hour, while First Group drivers in Yeovil are on £9.50 per hour. Drivers working for rival firms in Bournemouth and Poole earn nearly £2 an hour more.

 

“Unite‘s door for talks is always open, but the negotiations must be genuine from the management side,” Lanning added.

“We know that the strikes are causing inconvenience for the travelling public – striking is the last thing our members want, but they are fed up with being the ‘poor relations’ when it comes to pay compared with other First Bus drivers in the West Country,” he added.

“First Bus is a profitable company and only last week announced a UK-wide profit for its bus division of £52 million – the money is there, but, not apparently, for our lowly paid members.”

 

Nearly 90 per cent of the drivers voted in favour of strike action.