Newcastle drivers lose conditions
By Tim E. Stewart
NEWCASTLE — In a "sad day" for public transport, bus workers "have agreed to suffer in order to keep buses on the road", local bus workers' official Dave Winwood told a 150-strong public meeting here on July 16. Conditions for government bus drivers had been severely eroded in a recent deal, which also increased the risk of the privatisation of the government bus network.
The cuts in conditions include:
- an increase in the working day, from 8.5 to 9 hours, and an extension of the period before meal-breaks from 4.5 to 5 hours;
- halving of preparation time from the previously allowed 40 minutes;
- a reduction of stand-by staff;
- a doubling of the permissible amount of overtime shifts to two per month;
- an increased requirement of Sunday overtime;
- removal of the requirement that drivers working public holidays be given another day off.
"We've given more than what they wanted to take when they tried to buy off us three years ago", Winwood told the meeting. "Initially, they offered us a $54 pay rise to sell these conditions. The membership refused to sell. Eighteen months later, a few more things went for $38 a week. Again the membership refused to sell. The only way they got us to give up conditions was to hold the gun of privatisation at our head — taking our jobs off us, taking the bus service away from the people of Newcastle."
The agreement buys only five years' security, and even this is not guaranteed.
Winwood labelled the government as "callous". Of greatest concern was the impact of the new conditions on individual drivers. "They're prepared to drive people into the ground, force people to the point of nervous breakdown and marriage break-up."
While the industrial side of the dispute had been resolved, the social aspect had not, added Trades Hall secretary Peter Barrack. Even with the new agreement, there's no guarantee on future conditions. "We have only earned temporary respite. I believe this government will, in 18 months, attempt to reduce conditions on the pretext of greater efficiency. Their efficiency is measured in terms of reduced services to the general public. A public service should not be profit-driven, it should be service-driven."