Press Release – First Union
Last week’s illegal lockout of Wellington-based NZ Bus drivers has yet again shown us that private businesses simply aren’t fit to run New Zealand’s bus systems, with this lockout becoming the latest in a long line of failures and breakdowns under the ‘PTOM’ privatisation experiment that must end now, FIRST Union said today.
The Public Transport Operating Model (PTOM) is a framework developed in 2009 between Government, councils and private operators like NZ Bus that underpins the delivery of bus services around the country, and represents the most recent iteration in a series of moves to privatise public transport over several decades. Jared Abbott, FIRST Union Secretary for Transport, said that privatisation has meant a race to the bottom on bus drivers’ wages and conditions as companies compete for the lowest bids to deliver services, resulting in poor wages and conditions, strikes, lockouts and reduced services nationally.
Tuesday, 27 April 2021, 10:56 am
Last Thursday, New Zealand’s biggest public transport
company, NZ Bus, announced an indefinite lockout of about
280 drivers in Wellington who were to hold a 24-hour strike
the following day against attacks on wages and
conditions.
The Tramways Union filed an injunction
with the Employment Court, which on Saturday ordered that
the lockout be lifted. The court ruled that there was “an
arguable case” that NZ Bus’s lockout notice was
unlawful.
Bus services have resumed but the
pay dispute remains unresolved. The company said it would
not rule out more lockouts if there was not “significant
New Zealand: Lockout of Wellington bus drivers lifted after court ruling
Last Thursday, New Zealand’s biggest public transport company, NZ Bus, announced an indefinite lockout of about 280 drivers in Wellington who were to hold a 24-hour strike the following day against attacks on wages and conditions.
The Tramways Union filed an injunction with the Employment Court, which on Saturday ordered that the lockout be lifted. The court ruled that there was “an arguable case” that NZ Bus’s lockout notice was unlawful.
Bus drivers picketing outside the Wellington depot
Bus services have resumed but the pay dispute remains unresolved. The company said it would not rule out more lockouts if there was not “significant progress” on pay talks this week. The talks will be mediated by the Greater Wellington Regional Council (GWRC), chaired by the Labour Party’s Daran Ponter, which contracts NZ Bus for services in the capital.
The merchant bankers at First Capital, owner of NZ Bus, will be hoping their PR gurus will have a bit more fizz and bite than their carbonated namesakes. Given how last week’s NZBustastrophe ended, NZ Bus either received very bad PR advice from Thompson Lewis or else ignored very good PR advice from Thompson Lewis and locked out its drivers. It is quite difficult to unite GWRC (Greater Wellington Regional Council), the mayor, his councillors, the Tramways Union, the Combined Trade Unions, the minister of transport and the vast majority of the city’s highly annoyed bus commuters – but NZ Bus has done it.
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