Tomorrow’s Bus Disruptions

Well everyone seems to know by now anyway, but just in case you didn’t the lockout of drivers at NZ Bus will begin at 4am tomorrow and continue indefinitely. This is in response to the drivers (and cleaners) saying that they would “work to rule”. As I said yesterday, I don’t know the details of the pay dispute and in some ways it feels rather irrelevant to what is going on here – basically NZ Bus are simply suspending all their services from tomorrow onwards because staff would otherwise be working to the letter of their rulebook – checking for lost property, having necessary breaks, not driving buses without radios, not driving buses with known defects and so forth.

I’ll get back to the implications of that in a minute, but for now it’s interesting to simply focus on what people will be doing tomorrow. I’m somewhat fortunate in that I live only one stage from the city, and I think it’ll only take me 30-40 minutes to walk to work in the morning. In fact, Radio Live have contacted me to provide some sort of “running commentary” of whether things are highly chaotic or not as I wander to work in the morning. I can’t imagine it’s going to be particularly exciting reporting from me, but I might get the chance to have a bit of a go at NZ Bus on the radio – so that’s all good! I feel a bit sorrier for people who live much further from where they walk, as even though a skeleton replacement bus service is being offered in some parts of the city I imagine that they will be completely overcrowded – or people will just drive to work. I expect a lot of people who work in the city to drive to the surrounding suburbs and then wander into town. Or they’ll catch the train – it will be interesting to see how the train system copes with the extra demand.

If you normally catch an NZ Bus bus to work/uni/whatever I’d be interested in hearing what you’re doing tomorrow as an alternative.

Now, getting back to the implications of what will happen from tomorrow onwards, I actually think that we’re seeing something rather different to your normal “strike action” here, and it will be interesting to see what happens if things do drag on for a few days. The reason I say this is that – from my perspective – it seems as though NZ Bus is refusing to operate its services on the grounds that their staff are working to the letter of their contracts rather than cutting corners as they (presumably) do every day. Some of the “rules” seem a tad pedantic, and it’s obvious why drivers cut corners with regards to them (like lost property checks after each and every run), but others (such as not operating faulty buses) I must say I’m pretty shocked that any corners are cut in this respect. Each and every day we literally do put our lives in the hands of the bus operators – that the buses are in good working condition and aren’t faulty. The thought that NZ Bus is worried that drivers refusing to drive faulty buses would contribute to enough chaos to actually call off all their services is quite frightening. So either NZ Bus is being grossly negligent in the upkeep of their buses, or they’re hugely over-reacting to what would actually only be minor disruptions – I wonder which?

Another thought occurred to me today regarding the lockout – is it legal? Is it legal for NZ Bus to lock out their staff solely on the grounds that their staff are threatening to “to do their jobs by the rulebook”? I’m certainly no expert when it comes to employment law, but it’s an interesting one. This matter is complicated further when you realise that a large chunk of NZ Bus’ income comes from ARTA  and NZTA subsidies – basically from rates and petrol taxes that we pay. ARTA pays NZ Bus to operate subsidised services and services which are “fully contracted” (like the Mt Eden Road buses) – but if NZ Bus refuses to operate the services, what happens then? Surely they’re in breach of their contract and could get hammered? In my opinion ARTA should be doing more than just getting the message out there about alternatives, and actually put some pressure on NZ Bus to not proceed with the lockout. Perhaps they are doing this behind the scenes.

Finally, I must say I find it rather ironic that Snapper (owned by Infatil) are begging for another chance at running Auckland’s integrated ticketing system at exactly the same time as NZ Bus (also owned by Infratil) is suspending all its services. Pretty dumb Infratil, pretty dumb indeed.

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