Bus driver shortfall likely

Wellington’s new commuter bus operator has confirmed it will be down to the wire to see if it has enough bus drivers to run full services next week.

The Tramways Union estimates bus operator Tranzit will be 200 drivers short, while Tranzit managing director Paul Snelgrove predicts a ‘‘worst-case’’ shortage of 10 to 15 drivers.

The disputed figure is symptomatic of the tension between the union and the company that has been seething since Tranzit was the awarded contracts for most of Wellington’s commuter routes, making it the major player in the city at the expense of NZ Bus, which operates the Go Wellington and Valley Flyer services.

Those contracts begin on Sunday when the city’s public transport network will undergo the most comprehensive overhaul in its history, with routes and timetables set to change and doubledecker buses hitting the streets.

Tranzit said bus drivers would be financially better off working for them rather than NZ Bus. The union disagreed. Tranzit said the union was scaremongering.

The union said its fears were being realised.

But there is one point of agreement – that Tranzit has not yet recruited enough drivers to fill all of Wellington’s new services.

If some services were cancelled as a result, it would not be on the scale of recent cancellations that had taken place under NZ Bus, Snelgrove said.

While Tranzit takes over on Sunday, its first test comes on Monday morning when Wellingtonians will expect a full workday bus service. But the real crunch will be the following Monday, when school services begin.

Snelgrove said he was hopeful the company would have enough drivers on board by then.

Greater Wellington Regional Council details, released after intervention by the Ombudsman, detailed how Tranzit said on tender documents it ‘‘prefers to foster a culture in which employees don’t feel the need to join a union’’.

Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff believed Tranzit staff were simply too afraid to join a union.

Drivers were forced to take

redundancy from NZ Bus and then reapply for jobs at Tranzit.

Those new contracts, though initially similar in pay, were inferior, Wagstaff said.

‘‘Weekends, nights, and overtime – your conditions have been lost.’’

It was only after legal action that Tranzit agreed to negotiate with unions on a collective agreement. The initial meeting deadline had well passed and ‘‘they are still not in the room’’, Wagstaff said.

Snelgrove said the company was too busy right now to negotiate but it would.

Staff were ‘‘absolutely not’’ afraid to join the union.

The company would not tolerate intimidation or bullying either for or against joining.

‘‘We’re very comfortable with working with Tramways in good faith, as we offer some of the best hourly rates and terms and conditions in the country, verified independently,’’ Snelgrove said.

‘‘A small number of [NZ Bus] drivers, who hog the overtime, won’t be better off and they’re obviously free to choose not to join us.’’

A report by Wellington consultancy TDM, prepared for Greater Wellington Regional Council, concluded some drivers, especially those with less experience, would be better off under Tranzit’s contracts, but the most experienced NZ Bus drivers would be better off with their current employers.

Snelgrove said those who came across with less than five years’ service would be better off at Tranzit. Those with five to 10 years of service ‘‘may be’’ better off, while those with more than 10 years’ service and associated penal rates would be worse off.

A regional council spokesman said he was confident there would be enough drivers come this Sunday.