2021-05-05 04:35:46 GMT2021-05-05 12:35:46(Beijing Time) Xinhua English
WELLINGTON, May 5 (Xinhua) New Zealand Transport Minister Michael Wood is seeking feedback on options for the next phase of the Public Transport Operating Model review to better protect bus drivers pay conditions, and also achieving the government s target of fully decarbonizing the public transport bus fleet by 2035.
Investing in people and providing critical infrastructure is part of the government s COVID-19 economic recovery plan, Wood said in a statement on Wednesday. Bus drivers play a key role in keeping our cities moving, getting commuters to work and giving Kiwis travel choices, Wood said, adding ensuring bus driver wages and conditions are protected is important.
KEVIN STENT/Stuff
Wellington bus drivers picketed the Kilbirnie depot during their 24-hour strike in April after pay negotiations with NZ Bus reached an impasse. The policy was intended to improve efficiency and reduce the need for government funding of public transport. But many in the industry say it has given an advantage to companies which pay drivers less. “They have to compete on labour, because it’s the only cost that isn’t fixed,” Tramways Union secretary Kevin O’Sullivan said. The petition calls on the Government to establish regional collective agreements, to ensure drivers are paid equitably regardless of which company wins public transport contracts.
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.
Press Release – First Union Last weeks illegal lockout of Wellington-based NZ Bus drivers has yet again shown us that private businesses simply arent fit to run New Zealands bus systems, with this lockout becoming the latest in a long line of failures and breakdowns under …
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.
Thursday, 29 April 2021, 6:57 am
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