TFL bus strike

[BestWestern]

You make some valid points, but there is only so much that any employer can do to make it's staff more productive. Certainly on the national rail network, such a situation may see 'ammended' diagramming to alter the content of a days' work, but it is sill ultimately just another shift.

If people are salaried then the hours they work are already in their contract, any extra hours are overtime which cannot be forced upon people if they do not wish to work it. Any extra hours that are worked would be paid as overtime. Most of these staff are safety critical, or in the case of bus drivers are bound by driving hours legislation, and this brings regulations and required rest periods which will be adhered to just as they would at any other time. I would completely support the idea of compensation for those with leave cancelled, but in reality this will be a small minority.

However you look at it, employers cannot simply demand that everybody turns up and does whatever they are told. I'm afraid I still feel that it rather smacks of grasping.

 

[WhiteJoker]

Well truth to be told, I would want to be compensated as well if my job got significantly harder. They get more passengers, especially if other modes of transportation fail. It would be far harder to navigate the streets of London during the Olympics as roads are busier, not even mentioning the possible closures.

IMO It's not fair to the drivers to tell them there job isn't getting harder and they should not be compensated. Though I'm not sure if striking is the best method to get the recognition they want.

 

[notadriver]

Well if that was the case they and their Unite leaders said nothing about it in the press and their lovely full page adverts.All anyone knew was about an Olympic bonus and thats it.

These are just comments from bus driver colleagues of mine on another forum. They feel they have always been treated as 'second class citizens' and point out that prior to privatisation they were on a par with tube drivers in terms of salary and conditions and had it not been for privatisation they would be on a tube drivers salary today. The tendering process according to them has driven down wages and worsened T&Cs. For example at one company the starter rate is £8 an hour whereas ex route 25 bendybus drivers are still on £18 an hour thanks to TUPE rules. They say the RMT would never stand for that (one group of tube drivers being paid less than the other).

 

[Clip]

These are just comments from bus driver colleagues of mine on another forum. They feel they have always been treated as 'second class citizens' and point out that prior to privatisation they were on a par with tube drivers in terms of salary and conditions and had it not been for privatisation they would be on a tube drivers salary today. The tendering process according to them has driven down wages and worsened T&Cs. For example at one company the starter rate is £8 an hour whereas ex route 25 bendybus drivers are still on £18 an hour thanks to TUPE rules. They say the RMT would never stand for that (one group of tube drivers being paid less than the other).

Well like I said - the ONLY thing that came from the union was about how busy they would be with extra passengers.Nowt about extra shifts or the overtime they would be paid anyway as part of their contracts

The last comment about tube drivers is a moot point - they all work for London underground. Bus drivers work for a myriad of different companies so the comparison between what a union would do cannot be made.

 

[BestWestern]

These are just comments from bus driver colleagues of mine on another forum. They feel they have always been treated as 'second class citizens' and point out that prior to privatisation they were on a par with tube drivers in terms of salary and conditions and had it not been for privatisation they would be on a tube drivers salary today. The tendering process according to them has driven down wages and worsened T&Cs. For example at one company the starter rate is £8 an hour whereas ex route 25 bendybus drivers are still on £18 an hour thanks to TUPE rules. They say the RMT would never stand for that (one group of tube drivers being paid less than the other).

I agree that bus Drivers in general are grossly underpaid. But that is a wider, general issue which these Unions really should have been raising a very long time ago. The fuss over the Olympics is not going to help with what is a very long term issue.