NSW: Sydney bus drivers accept pay offer

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-1999
NSW: Sydney bus drivers accept pay offer

SYDNEY, Dec 16 AAP - New South Wales government bus drivers today accepted a pay offer
from State Transit, ending a week of inconvenience for Sydney bus travellers.

Bus services were cancelled between 9.30am and 2pm today for a stopwork meeting - the
second this week.

About 2,000 drivers walked off the job for five hours on Tuesday to discuss a pay claim,
but embarrassed union officials had to reschedule the meeting because a public address
system failed.

The meeting was rescheduled for this morning so drivers could vote on State Transit's
offer of a six per cent pay rise over two years.

Drivers had been asking for a 14 per cent rise over the same period, as well as guarantees
on training and other working conditions.

Rail, Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) assistant national secretary Ron Pearsall said 1,200
drivers at the meeting voted overwhelmingly in favour of the six per cent offer.

Mr Pearsall said the stopwork meetings had been scheduled in the middle of the day
to have a minimal impact on commuters.

Despite the warning, many commuters were left stranded by Tuesday's stoppage.

But Mr Pearsall said the union had not received any complaints about the stoppage and
stressed it had not been the RTBU's intention to drag out the negotiations for two days.

"I think the public was aware of the meeting and there was a general consensus that
the drivers had to vote on this," he said.

All bus services would resume at 2pm, the RTBU said.

AAP nd/tsm/wjf/bwl

KEYWORD: BUSES LEAD

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