Sydney Wakes up to Bus Strike on First Day of School Holidays

People wait at a bus stop in Sydney, Australia, on Feb, 19, 2013. Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Thousands of drivers in the now fully privatised bus industry in New South Wales (NSW) have walked off the job in a 24-hour strike, causing major delays and confusion on the first day of the Easter school holidays.

The Rail, Tram, and Bus Union (RTBU) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) are demanding that the NSW government take on a share of responsibility for implementing a set of industry standards to ensure a “safer and fairer” bus industry.

Unions are calling for better wages, a 4-hour driving time limit for fatigue management, and better industry training to deal with violent situations on buses.

TWU NSW Secretary Richard Olsen accused Transport Minister David Elliot of avoiding responsibility for the safety conditions of bus drivers.

“Drivers are driving buses owned by the NSW government, the bus routes and the bus stops are set by the NSW government. Yet the government, through the minister, claims no responsibility for safety and the conditions of the workers who operate the buses,” Olsen said.

David Babineau, the RTBU NSW Tram Secretary, said drivers had been “left with no choice” but to take action to get the NSW government and the transport minister to act.

“We have a situation, of the NSW government’s creation, where bus drivers doing exactly the same job are employed on different wages and conditions,” Babineau said. “It’s high time the transport minister stepped in and fixed its mess.”

A general view of a bus stop in Bondi Junction in Sydney, Australia, on Dec. 21, 2020. Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Elliot said on April 6 that he could not stop the planned bus strikes because the government is unable to interfere with a private enterprise agreement.

“The reason why the taxpayers are no longer exposed to industrial disputes on the bus services you’re referring to is because they’ve been franchised,” he told 2GB radio. “And I heard some other commentary about [it] being the government’s responsibility, where it’s not. That’s why we have the private sector, they deal with their own agreements.”

He added that he hears the argument from unions that cost of living, including petrol, was rising while wages growth was unable to keep up.

“But we cannot as a government necessarily expose the taxpayers to any extra burden because a private company and a union have an enterprise agreement which there in a dispute over,” Elliott said.

Transport for NSW warned commuters that bus services will be running on a reduced timetable around Sydney as well as Newcastle, the Hunter, Central Coast, and the Blue Mountains.

Families travelling to the Easter show can rest assured as special event buses are operating on all nine routes to and from the venue.

Motorists will also be allowed to drive on the T2 and T3 bus transit lanes on Monday and will not be fined.

The bus strikes are part of a wide series of planned industrial actions by the unions, that indicated strikes would continue to occur until their wage demands were met.