Go North East bus services to be hit by 'continuous' strike

Bus services in the North East of England are to be hit again after plans for "continuous strike action" were announced in a pay and conditions row.

Go North East staff are already set to walk out from Saturday until Friday following an earlier week of industrial action.

Further strikes of its 1,300 members are due to begin on 28 October, the Unite union says.

Go North East claimed the union had U-turned on a deal.

Unite said its members working for Go North East included drivers, engineers, maintenance workers and depot crews at the firm's bases in Sunderland, Washington, Gateshead, Hexham, Percy Main and Consett.

The union says drivers in the area are paid £12.83 an hour, while elsewhere in the Go Ahead Group that figure is a minimum of £15 an hour.

A spokesman for Go-Ahead group said: "Pay rates at Go North East are competitive with pay rates at Go-Ahead Group companies across the UK.

"It is completely untrue that everybody else gets over £15 and it's disappointing to see this kind of misinformation."

Unite regional officer Dave Telford told BBC Radio Newcastle that union representatives had this week rejected an offer of 10%.

"If you put that across £12.83 an hour that brings it to £14.11, which is still significantly below the next-lowest paid in the Go Ahead Group which is £15.

"Our claim of 13.4% doesn't fully close that gap to £15, but it goes some way. The offer that was made this week just wasn't good enough."

The dispute also involves working conditions, with the union saying Go North East wants to strip away existing conditions by reducing paid meal breaks and the paid time to travel between depots.

Asked whether a continuous strike would lead to a backlash from passengers, Mr Telford said he was confident striking workers would retain their support.

Go North East said the union had itself put forward the 10% offer, asking for it to be backdated to 1 July along with a guarantee of an "inflation-proofed" pay rise in eight months' time.

Unite also asked that the discussion of conditions be separated from pay, the bus firm said.

But having agreed to those proposals, Go North East added the union then "announced a sudden U-turn".

Business director Ben Maxfield said: "Our workforce is beside itself with worry, but instead of a constructive dialogue what we are seeing from the local Unite representatives is moving goal posts, U-turns and knee-jerk reactions, with no consideration of the impact on the travelling public.

"This dispute and strike are entirely of Unite's making. Unite are literally rejecting a deal they themselves proposed."

The initial week of strikes, from 30 September to 6 October, left Go North East unable to run any services except the "vast majority" of its 121 school buses.

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