pommie bastard

Another day of in-action in the land of plenty good job its pissing down gives the punters more fun on the roads.

BUS services in Perth's southern suburbs will be disrupted again today as a strike by Southern Coast Transit drivers continues.

An emergency hearing in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission late yesterday failed to resolve a row over drivers' hours.

Drivers voted to strike indefinitely on Tuesday after the company refused to guarantee them 7.6 hours work per day instead of split shifts that range between four hours and 10 hours.

The strike has halted bus services in Mandurah, Rockingham, Kwinana, Cockburn, Fremantle and Melville.

Pickets have been set up at the company's three depots to prevent buses leaving.

The company applied for a conference at the commission at 2pm yesterday in a bid to remove what is known as a bargaining period, which gives the drivers the legal right to strike.

If the bargaining period is removed or suspended, any further strike action is deemed illegal and opens the way for the company to sue the union and the drivers.

After the conference, a hearing was convened at 3.30pm to allow the company to make a formal application to remove the bargaining period.

Advocate for the company, Chris Stanley, said Perth's entire southern bus network had been shut down by the strike that clearly showed the bargaining period should be removed.

Transport Workers Union industrial officer Neville Hodgson said that he had been given insufficient time to prepare his case.

Commission deputy president Nicholas Blaine adjourned the hearing until 9am today.

Outside the commission, Southern Coast Transit managing director Ray Cochrane said he was hopeful that a return to work order would be issued at today's hearing.

"It would then be dependent on whether the union takes any notice of the order," he said. "If they do, then I would expect that the following day we would have buses back in service."

TWU organiser Mick Knowles said a meeting of drivers would be called today after the commission hearing.

He would not speculate on what action drivers would take.

http://www.thewest.com.au/20030710/n...sto104527.html

renth

As a union man myself (Communication Workers Union) I support the bus drivers, they shouldn't be working split shifts. Many say that by the end of the day they are so tired they don't even know what run they did last.

pommie bastard

I will agree with you as a union member I wish all to have good working conditions , but bad Aussie management creates this problem.
Have you seen the route numbers on posts here to tell the drivers which way to go , its because they swop and change drivers on routes so often the guys have not got a clue which way to go.

renth

I've been on many "magical mystery tours" and often the driver has to shout out to the passengers to get directions. Still the busses are frequent, clean and the fares are dirt cheap.

I've heard they are less reliable when you get out to Woop Woop.

pommie bastard

One horse town like Perth should have good transport but the South of the River people would not have your views .
Northern Burbs have the best of the train service ,still its not on to try and get to my work place in Balcatta it would add an hour on my time either way.
Love the art work on the Train and Bus windows great what you can scratch into a bit of glass , city of culture?