Public Service Watch: Bustastrophe ending as another stoush brews

Tuesday, 22 August 2023

Buses are finally getting back to normal but now the union is calling an all-driver meeting that could keep some drivers off for hours.

Just as Wellington commuters could breathe a tentative sigh of relief at the coming end of the years-long bus problems, a union is looking to pull all drivers from the road for up to four hours.

The Greater Wellington Regional Council can fine bus operators — of which Tranzurban and NZ Bus are the main players — for missed trips.

Under the Fair Pay Agreement Act, all employees — regardless of whether they are union members or not — are entitled to attend a meeting and the Tramways Union has called for that meeting to happen for two hours next Wednesday. The meeting was originally scheduled for this week but got moved back.

Once smaller operators Mana and Uzabus are factored in, that is virtually every driver that runs a scheduled route from Masterton to Wellington to Kāpiti.

One would think Daran Ponter, a proud Labour Party man and chairperson of the regional council, would be 100% behind what is essentially a worker’s rights issue (Labour, after all, formed from the union movement and remains strongly union-aligned).

But there is one bigger problem. Wellington bus problems — which started with an overhaul of the network in 2018 and were seemingly improving until a driver shortage — are seemingly over with enough drivers now already on the job or in training.

And with it is the hope that battered public trust in buses can be restored.

Ponter said the meeting would mean some drivers would be out of action for up to four hours once travel time was factored in, pushing the stoppage into the “sacrosanct” end-of-school time.

What Ponter wants is a series of smaller meetings to spread the pain out.

The council will this time fine the companies for missed trips. As the council’s contract is with operators, not drivers, it is the operator lumped with the bill.

Tramways union secretary Kevin O’Sullivan has called the situation “ridiculous”.

“It remains our contention that one meeting will cause the least disruption and GWRC’s position is not in keeping with all we have been hearing about their regard for Wellington’s bus drivers,” he said.

It seemed that late on Monday the union was possibly considering a second meeting — but still well short of what the council wants.

The situation leaves things at an impasse as the meeting looms with some bus disruption highly likely, but with its scale coming down to the wire.