Talks to end First Aberdeen industrial action stall over new wage rates

Talks to end strike action on Aberdeen’s buses have been adjourned, after the union and First Aberdeen bosses reached a “sticking point” over new wage rates.

Last week drivers at First Bus in Aberdeen decided to go on an indefinite strike in protest against new contracts. Among other things the union says First Aberdeen proposals include an increase in drivers’ working hours for reduced wages, reduced sick pay, reduced annual leave and holiday pay, and an end to paid breaks for drivers on duty.

After talks which started on Monday evening, and lasted more than five hours today, both sides have reached a sticking point on agreed wage rates for new drivers and the talks were adjourned.

Unite First Bus Branch convenor, Mike Flinn said: “We thought we had reached a proposal which could be put to our members. But every time we get to that point First demands more and more. They don’t know the meaning of ‘enough’.”

Drivers are taking action all this week, and could carry on well into April. They’ll meet on Thursday to discuss next steps.

Andrew Jarvis, Managing Director for First Aberdeen said:

“Despite significant improvements to the original proposal and our senior team having made every effort over the course of the last week to engage in meaningful negotiations and bring this unnecessary action to a close, we are extremely disappointed and frustrated by this recent negotiation failure, but remain open and available for talks with our union colleagues, as we have done throughout this process, to seek an immediate solution.

“I would like to apologise to customers for this ongoing action and although we again increased the amount of services on offer today, it is still nothing like a normal level of frequency or duration. We are working hard to further improve the services again this week and I would like to thank people for their patience.”