A Hamilton City Councillor has responded to complaints by companies providing contracted public bus services about new legislation putting in place giving more frequent work breaks for all employees, by stating the staff on Waikato buses have “had a poor deal in terms of working conditions and wages for some years now, so I’m pleased that the Government’s new laws are starting to address this.”

From May 6th, bus drivers are entitled to a 10 minute break after two hours’ work, and a 30 minute break after 4 hours, as opposed to the draconian current requirement that they can be made to work up to five and a half hours continuously without a break.

Cr Dave Macpherson, who is the Hamilton City Council representative on the Waikato Regional Passenger Transport Committee, pointed out “the bus companies have known for at least four months that they were going to need to provide fairer work breaks for their drivers from this May onwards, so its a bit rich of the companies to go squealing to the Government at the last minute about the effects of the change.”

“It is hardly going to break the bank to give these small but deserved breaks to their staff,” Macpherson said.

“What’s more the small breaks will reduce the driver stress levels arising from driving for hours on end in heavy traffic, and improve their health and mental wellbeing.”

“Go Bus and all the other contracted bus companies should have been planning with the Regional Councils these work roster changes to enable the breaks months ago, not trying to blame everyone else at the eleventh hour, and especially not to moan that the resulting new rosters will need more buses and more drivers,” he said.

Mr Macpherson said that, as the Waikato Regional leaders of the Passenger Transport Committee, he and Chair Russ Rimmington were only alerted 8 days ago to the looming issue, and “expressed amazement and annoyance that the local bus contractors had not raised the issue some months ago - before the Regional Council’s brand new bus schedules that started this week.”

He added “on top of the low wages paid to our drivers, we are not surprised that the poor working conditions have made it hard to recruit drivers.’

“Our Passenger Transport Committee will need to urgently look at the need for realistic funding and realistic timetabling for our growing bus network, as we are all accountable for being good employers in this industry.”

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