Unite drives up coach pay

A strike threat has helped coach drivers in north-east Scotland to close the gap between their pay and that of bus drivers employed by the same parent company.

The T&G section of general union Unite had called a one-day strike last month at Mairs Coaches, a subsidiary of First Aberdeen, following the breakdown of talks aimed at improving the drivers’ £6.50 hourly rate.

First Aberdeen’s bus rates are £6.87 an hour, but drivers also receive a shift allowance of £32.65 per week and a weekly bonus of £63.13, raising their effective hourly rate to £9.39 for a standard 38-hour week.

The stoppage was called off when Mairs management tabled a new offer – involving an £8 hourly rate alongside improvements to sick pay and holidays – which was “reluctantly accepted– by Unite’s 14 members at the company.

Although Mairs operates out of the same garages as First Aberdeen, its pay and conditions are negotiated separately.

• The Mairs dispute arose less than a month after First Aberdeen narrowly avoided a strike by 400 bus drivers over plans to hire agency workers as holiday cover at a higher rate of pay.

The action was averted when the company agreed with Unite that it would meet the staffing shortfall using existing staff on overtime rates.