Unrest grows at First Group

Unrest grows at First Group as bus workers' rejection of zero pay deal snowballs

Two and a half thousand bus workers at First Group are set to take strike action in some of the country's biggest transport regions in mounting disputes over an imposed zero per cent pay deal. The strikes are set to go ahead as FirstGroup's national management refuses to allow local management at its 19 subsidiaries to fund a pay rise for its employees.

Unite, is warning that unless the company alters its aggressive negotiating position, these strikes could soon be followed by others across the company's largest regions, meaning that thousands of bus services will be hit simultaneously.

The union recently announced that all 833 of its members at Bury, Bolton and Wigan bus depots will take part in a further four days of strike action on Monday 5th, 12th, 19th and 26th October. Drivers have already held four 24-hour stoppages in the last few weeks, while Unite's attempts to resolve the pay deal by engaging the help of the conciliation service Acas in an attempt to break the deadlock came to nothing as FirstGroup continues to refuse to budge on fair pay.

With strike ballots at First South Yorkshire also announced on Monday, September 28th, and a third ballot in First's Essex subsidiary yesterday (Thursday) returning a 95 per cent vote in favour of industrial action, the company now faces three simultaneous disputes with future strike action likely to be co-ordinated across the three disputes. Further, balloting is at an advanced stage in First's large London and West Yorkshire subsidiaries, which are likely to join the growing rejection of the zero per cent pay policy imposed by First's main board, bringing the total number on strike to some 8,000 bus workers.

Unite is also warning the company that its strategy to force reballots is also backfiring as majorities for strike action rise massively, with, at some sites, nine out of 10 workers voting to strike.

Unite's national organiser for transport, Graham Stevenson, said: "Our members up and down the country are simply furious at First's imposed zero per cent pay freeze and will not accept it. This dispute is set to escalate massively unless First rethinks its position.

"This is a company with a record £134 million in annual profits but it refuses a fair pay rise to those who earn this for them. Other companies in the same industry are settling at around 2.5 per cent.

"Forget the ending of the bonus culture, it's alive and well in First's boardroom. At the beginning of 2009, First management confirmed a 15 per cent bonanza for shareholders for each of the last five years, funding this by slashing jobs, wages and terms and conditions. Enough is enough. Bus workers are only asking for a fraction of what the fat cat executives have given themselves so that they can support their families and keep pace with the cost of living."

Unite is further concerned that industrial relations at FirstGroup will be damaged for the long-term by the company's determination to impose the pay freeze nationally, bypassing the national forum established to resolve terms and conditions matters on the basis of mutual co-operation.

Graham Stevenson added: "This imposition of a national pay freeze places in jeopardy all national understandings between us. I appeal to First to meet us nationally and confirm that they are willing to reconsider the aggressive and hostile stance they have adopted in the last few months. Unite will place this on record. From today, the die is cast. Unite cannot and will not walk away from its thousands of members and only First can enable a peaceable outcome."