TWU (VIC/TAS Branch) members have notified bus company CDC they have altered planned industrial actions across Victoria next week to ensure bus services before and after school will not be impacted.
CDC Victoria TWU members walked off the job twice last week after receiving Fair Work Commission protected action approval.
The drivers had planned to strike on Tuesday and Friday this week and Tuesday next week within school peak hour times as that coincided with driver shift times.
However, TWU (VIC/TAS Branch) Secretary John Berger said members made the decision to change the timing of these actions to ensure school children and their parents faced no or minimal disruptions.
“Bus drivers are respected members of the community. They are respected by the vast majority of passengers for the community service they provide - sometimes under very trying circumstances,” Mr Berger said.
“And many bus drivers themselves cite the interaction and familiarity with regular passengers as a great benefit of the job and a reason why so many remain in the industry for decade after decade. The last thing they want to do is inconvenience fellow hard-working Victorians.
“However, Victorian bus drivers have not taken strike action for 20 years and there comes a time when you have to look after yourself and these drivers have drawn a line in the sand.
"Like many bus passengers, drivers pay mortgages or rent, taxes, rates and school fees and have continually increasing grocery and utility bills. They want wage certainty and the current annual wage growth system has been too unreliable.”
Victorian bus driver pay rises are currently determined – and have been for the past 15 years – by the unreliable Annual Wage Growth system.
The current CDC wage offer is actually less than all previous 12 average annual wage increases.
“I ask the question of bus passengers - would you happily and quietly accept a deal from your employer that is less than previous years while in the meantime all of your other expenses have remained unchanged or increased?," Mr Berger said.
“If the answer is ‘no’, and that you would try to fight for what is fair, then you would understand why hard-working Victorian bus drivers have made this stand against a rich, powerful, multinational who in 2017 had an annual global revenue of $400 billion and an Australian revenue of $420 million."
The protected industrial action will proceed on Tuesday, 17 July 2018 in the form of a work stoppage by CDC Victoria bus drivers between the hours of 9am and 1pm.
Also, Fair Work Commission mediation held last Friday failed to progress discussions.
The point should be reinforced that CDC itself applied to the FWC for mediation.
However, CDC not only failed to improve its current offer but used the mediation session to re-table a previously-rejected offer.
That offer had been put to the TWU by CDC in a meeting on Monday 9 July and was rejected by the TWU during that same meeting on Monday 9 July.
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