BIG BUS FIRMS VOWS NO BASTARDRY

Swan Transit part-owner Neil Smith has told the TWU he will not be using John Howard’s new IR laws to beat his drivers over the head with. “There will be no acts of bastardy from me,” Neil assured me in a very candid telephone discussion.

Like most other bus companies Swan Transit is struggling with the effects of a pretty serious driver shortage. Neil says he is battling to find a full complement of drivers for some local depots. But his problem is far more chronic in South Australia.

Knowing he pays his Torrens Transit drivers less than he does here, I suggested that money could be part of his problem in Adelaide He didn’t disagree.  

Clearly, now is not the time for bus firms to be talking about reducing wages and conditions. And Neil, who has introduced his own workplace agreements, was having nothing to do with the Howard laws.

“Any company that thinks they are going to be able to go around cutting their employees pays had better think again.

“In fact I told a meeting of union delegates in Adelaide recently that companies who did that would be cutting their own throats.’ said Neil Smith.

That’s good news for Swan Transit and Swan Riverside Drivers who have been wondering what Neil might do with the new laws.

Even though most Perth bus drivers are protected by TWU negotiated agreements, employers will still have the right to employ new drivers on Australian Workplace Agreements.

Interestingly, Neil told the TWU that half of the drivers he has been employing in recent times have come from Somalia and Indonesia.

“In fact when we advertise locally for drivers we also average around 50 applications from people in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), he said

“They are generally stateless people from India and Pakistan and they email us resumes and pictures of themselves standing alongside their buses.”

Neil Smith is wracking his brains trying to come up with creative ways of solving his driver shortagae problems.

These include:

• Trying to keep older drivers from retiring by intoducing a shift where they only work one or two days a week.
• Setting up child care facilities at depots.
• Recruiting more people from overseas.

As Bob Dylan once said, “The Times They Are A-Changing”