Nottingham City Transport has been notified by the TGWU today, of their intention to take strike action from Saturday 27 th May and on each subsequent Saturday thereafter, from 4.00am until 4.00 am on the Sunday.
This action will affect services from 3 of the 4 NCT depots, the Pathfinder services to Newark and Southwell are unaffected by this dispute and will continue to operate as scheduled.
This strike action has been called by the TGWU following unsuccessful pay negotiations which have been ongoing since December 2005. Nottingham City Transport offered and implemented a 2.4% rise to drivers, this equates to an increase of 20p per hour, taking experienced big bus driver rates to £8.77 per hour. This was overwhelmingly rejected by the TGWU members.
NCT drivers have enjoyed an above inflation increase for the past 7 years, and currently receive one of best salary packages on offer to bus drivers outside of London . The average drivers salary last year was £19,788, they also enjoy a final salary pension scheme, paid meal breaks, sickness payments, a non contributory health scheme, five weeks paid holiday and free travel across the network for themselves and their partners.
The Company will continue to discuss outstanding claims with the TGWU, but maintains that any additional payments must be fully funded by productivity efficiencies and the door remains open to discuss these at any time.
Mark Fowles the Managing Director of Nottingham City Transport said:
“Unfortunately, NCT cannot afford to offer any more to staff this year, other sectors of our workforce have appreciated this fact and have recently settled at this level, we are disappointed that our drivers, who have had disproportionate increases in previous years, have not appreciated our current financial position, and believe that we should not ask our passengers to bear this additional cost.”
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