More than 100 Tasmanian bus drivers walked off the job this morning over a pay gap they say leaves them hundreds of dollars a week worse off than public-sector colleagues.
The Kinetic drivers stopped work from 6am to 12pm in Hobart and Launceston on Thursday.
The Transport Workers’ Union (TWU), which organised the strike, says Kinetic drivers earn up to $250 a week less than those at publicly owned Metro Tasmania for doing the same job.
The union says that works out to a gap of $6.39 an hour.
Kinetic and the union have been in enterprise bargaining since November, with drivers calling for “same job, same pay”.
The union said the strike was a “huge success”.
“The Kinetic state manager was seen driving a bus, as striking workers across the state created major disruptions for school bus services, underscoring the essential role they play in keeping Tasmania moving,” it said.
TWU Vic/Tas director of organising Sam Lynch said drivers had told the public in April they could not afford to live on their wages.
“Strike action is always a last resort, but Kinetic bus drivers have been pushed too far for too long,” he said.
“Workers are undervalued and underpaid.”
Kinetic this week said it would try to minimise disruption.
Tasmanian general manager Andrew Grzinic said all general access services would run as normal and school routes had been consolidated so every school was still serviced.
“Kinetic has been actively engaging with the Tasmanian government to secure the funding needed to deliver pay parity with Metro Tasmania,” he said.
Grzinic said the company, which operates services on behalf of the state, passed on all government wage funding directly to drivers.
The Tasmanian government, singled out by the union over the pay dispute, said it was not its fight and was a “matter between a private company and their employees”.
“It is not appropriate for a government to intervene in a private pay dispute,” a government spokesperson said.
“It is up to Kinetic’s multi-national owners, not the Tasmanian government, to ensure the company is able to support its workforce pay negotiations.”
The spokesperson said the government encouraged the union and company “to find a reasonable and sustainable conclusion”.
