The idiotic employers at NZ Bus owned by Infratil have dragged their lockout into a 7th day of disrupting Auckland’s commuters. Yesterday they repackaged some of their old proposals and tried to make it look like something new. What the grasping employers want is for the drivers to break their existing contract and do extra work and duties, often for free. Work-to-rule is not industrial action. Doing extra duties is something that employers have no right to demand.
The question that comes to mind today is that I haven’t seen any discussion from NZ Bus or ARTA (Auckland Regional Transport Authority) about recompensing the various passes and concessions that their customers have. These are purchased by many commuters, typically monthly, and allow access to the transport services including buses.
They are not cheap, the one I use costs $175 per month. It has been absolutely useless this last week, I’ve been either been taking a car (and suffering traffic problems and parking costs) or using taxi’s. One of my workmates has a total pass costing $315 per month. It has been effectively useless over the last week because while he can get to Auckland on the ferry, getting from there to work is somewhat tricky.
For people who have concession cards and passes, NZ Bus and its owners Infratil have not been providing the services that they contracted for with myself and other commuters. How exactly do they propose to redress this theft? Perhaps the ARTA should have a look at the obligations of NZ Bus to its card holders.
I’d suggest that a couple of weeks free travel for each week that the employers drag this lockout on for..
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