Bus drivers tipped to be first in line for a Fair Pay Agreement

Thursday, 27 October 2022

Labour MP Marja Lubeck says Wellington's bus service shows why Fair Pay Agreements are needed.

Bus drivers are expected to be first in line to try and negotiate a Fair Pay Agreement that could improve their pay and conditions.

Unions are understood to be hopeful that a quick negotiated deal could clear the path for more agreements that would make it harder for any future National government to reverse the Fair Pay Bill, which was passed by Parliament on Wednesday arguably marking the biggest shake-up in labour laws in 31 years.

Auckland bus driver and First Union delegate Melvin Luicien said many bus drivers were switching to jobs in the trucking industry where they could get paid $28 to $32 an hour with better conditions and no risk of assaults from passengers.

There was a shortage of more than 500 bus drivers in Auckland, where there had been more than 50 assaults on bus drivers in the past year, he said.

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Unions hope a Fair Pay Agreement for bus drivers could be one of the least contentious, making that a good candidate to kick-start the new employment rights regime.

Luicien had remained a bus driver for 15 years because he enjoyed the job and “loved meeting people”.

“When I’m out on the road I am happy with the passengers.”

But the prevalence of split shifts made it hard for bus drivers to have a normal family life, he said.

Pay ranged between $26.50 and $28 an hour after a recent increase, but drivers often had to work a three-to-five hour shift in the morning and a similar shift in the evening, with a four-hour gap in the middle for which they were only paid a total of $5 or $6, he said.

Many drivers just hung around the depot “doing absolutely nothing” between shifts as it was too little time to get home and back, and anyway their families weren’t there during the day, he said.

They might start work at 6am and get home by 7pm and “they have no life”, he said. “Eat dinner, go to sleep, get up in the morning and it’s back to work.”

Unlike in Australia, where pay was about A$32 (NZ$35.50) an hour, there was also no penalty rate for being rostered on at weekends, he said.

Luicien expected a Fair Pay Agreement would raise wages and improve working conditions.

Workers from a variety of industries are queueing up for support from the Council of Trade Unions (CTU), which from December will be able to use the Fair Pay law to help workers negotiate improved minimum pay and conditions from their employers.

The CTU is in line to receive $750,000 from the Government over three years to raise awareness and help negotiate Fair Pay Agreements, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

CTU president Richard Wagstaff has signalled that early childhood teachers, cleaners, security guards and supermarket and forestry workers are likely to be near the front of the union queue.

But it is understood bus drivers are likely to be selected as the first group to receive CTU support for a Fair Pay Agreement.

That is partly because there are high hopes an agreement could be negotiated with bus operators without unions having to resort to the backstop of requesting the Employment Relations Authority step in and set minimum pay and conditions – which is what would need to happen if negotiations with employers broke down.

There is also an assumption that bus firms would be able to pass on the cost of higher pay in their contracts with local authorities.

Another consideration is understood to be that bus drivers are a relatively small and easily defined group of workers, making them suitable for a test case of the legislation.

National Party workplace relations spokesperson Paul Goldsmith reiterated on Thursday that it would repeal the Fair Pay Act as soon as it could if it won the next election.

It is understood the union movement is keen to see as many Fair Pay Agreements put in place as possible before any such opportunity arose to help cement the law change.

National Party workplace relations spokesperson Paul Goldsmith believes repealing the Fair Pay Act would void any agreements that had previously been negotiated or imposed.

That process could potentially be speeded up if there was an early negotiated agreement for bus drivers that could set a precedent for other negotiations and for the ERA.

Speaking in Parliament on Wednesday, Finance Minister Grant Robertson appeared to allude to the argument that concluded agreements could put a future National government in the difficult position of lowering pay for workers who were already covered by Fair Pay rules.

“They say they are going to repeal it. They want to – by design – lower the wages of working people,” he said when wrapping up the debate on the legislation.

Goldsmith said his understanding was that any existing Fair Pay Agreements, and not just new ones, would be voided by the repeal of the Act.

But he questioned whether any were likely to be firmed up within a year, especially given that employers would have the right to seek a judicial review of any agreements that were imposed by the Employment Relations Authority.

Employers would be free to keep any minimums that they had put in place if they wanted, he said.

Goldsmith said any problem with bus drivers’ pay and conditions could be addressed without recourse to Fair Pay Agreements.

“If there are concerns about a so-called ‘race to the bottom’ with bus drivers, that is something that can be dealt with in the contracts put forward by local councils.

“You don’t need to change the entire employment relations framework, potentially affecting every business in the country, to achieve that,” he said.

Speaking at a CTU event to celebrate the passage of the legislation on Wednesday, Wood stressed the need for unions to be outward-looking and serve “all workers in our country, most particularly those who have become disconnected from the labour movement”.

That could help ensure Fair Pay Agreements were valued by the public and seen as part of the country’s national identity and “bastards can’t turn it back”, he said.

“The way forward with Fair Pay Agreements has to be to build alliances … and it has to be about being strategic and disciplined,” he told the assembled activists.

“Our opponents, just because the bill has passed, will not stop with the misinformation,” he said.