Hundreds of bus drivers in Queensland will refuse to get behind the wheel during a 24-hour strike over pay and driver shortages.
Bus services from the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast will be severely impacted from 4am on Wednesday as more than 500 drivers and cleaners from the Transport Workers Union (TWU) take their fourth strike action in three months.
Residents travelling in and out of Brisbane are warned to expect lengthy delays with Kinetic and Clarks Logan City Bus services running to a Saturday timetable.
The majority of school buses are expected to run as normal, however students catching general services are expected to be affected by the industrial action.
In a statement, Kinetic “sincerely” apologised to passengers for the “substantial impact” on commuters from the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, and Tweed regions.
“With the majority of bus drivers on the Sunshine Coast expected to participate in protected industrial action, a large number of bus services are not anticipated to operate on the Sunshine Coast,” the company said.
“We will endeavour to run as many Gold Coast school buses as possible to ensure student safety and have requested assistance from the TWU to ensure these vital services are not disrupted, however some impacts will occur and we cannot safely guarantee any level of service.”
Clarks Logan also apologised to more than 3000 commuters who will be “severely” affected by the strike, urging those travelling at peak times to seek alternative travel arrangements.
“This is the second stoppage of work by the union over the past two months and we were hoping to prevent further disruptions to our customers. It is extremely disappointing,” a company spokesperson said.
The strike is the latest in a series of industrial actions from drivers in the region, with the TWU and bus companies locked in difficult negotiations around Enterprise Agreements.
More needs to be done in terms of pay to address a shortage of drivers in the state’s southeast according to the TWU Queensland director of organising Jarred Abbott.
“If we act on wages now, we can retain existing staff while attracting new drivers and avoid the looming crisis of more services being reduced,” Mr Abbott said.
“We don‘t have a driver shortage, we have a wage shortage – bus driver wages have not kept up with the cost of living or other industries.”
Drivers also conducted a strike in August and fare collection protests in September in their bid for annual pay rises of over 4.5 per cent.