Christmas bus strikes to go ahead in south Hampshire after pay talks fail
Disruption will hit services on four days, beginning tomorrow (Thursday 19th)
Bus services in Portsmouth, Gosport and Fareham are set to face disruption over Christmas after a union confirmed plans to take strike action.
First Bus Solent services will be impacted tomorrow (December 19th), on December 21st, on Christmas Eve and on Boxing Day.
It comes after last-minute pay talks with the Unite union at the conciliation service Acas broke down.
The union had claimed that First Bus offered workers only a 4% pay increase during negotiations.
A Solent from First Bus spokesperson, said:
“In a final attempt to prevent industrial action taking place over the festive period, we met with Unite again on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 December, and ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) acting as mediation.
“Throughout the negotiation process we have taken on Unite member feedback and made a number of offers in order to try and settle this dispute, to ensure customers are not affected by strike action.
“Our final no strings offer of 7.8% (including other enhancements) represented a 35.9% pay increase since 2021. Unite told us today they would give members the opportunity to have their say via ballot, without a recommendation to either accept or reject to allow staff to make their own choice.
"However, we are bitterly disappointed to learn that Unite in fact recommended members reject the offer, in direct contrast to what they told us in negotiations."
The operator has apologised to customers affected and says that commuters will 'suffer unnecessarily' over the festive period.
"We know people will have essential appointments and will want to visit family and so we will do all we can using staff from other areas to keep as many services running as possible.”
How will services be affected:
First Bus has warned that all services on December 19th, 21st, 24th and 26th may be subject to change at short notice and passengers should check before travelling.
• First Bus expects routes 2, 7, 8, 22, Hoverbus (H1), the Portsmouth Park & Ride (PR1) and Portsmouth University U1 and U2 service to operate as normal.
• School and College services PC1, PC2, RED, SD4, SD5 and SD7 are expected to operate as normal.
• A reduced and limited service is planned to operate on routes 3, 5, E1 and E2
• Route 3 will operate between Fareham and Cosham Health Centre only every 20 minutes between approx. 7am and 6pm. Passengers travelling to/from Portsmouth, please use services 7 and 8 and change at Cosham.
• Route 5 will operate hourly between approx. 7am and 6pm. Please see special timetable (attached) for further details.
• Routes E1 and E2 will each operate half hourly between approx. 7am and 6pm, with a combined 15-minute frequency between Fareham and Fort Brockhurst.