Striking bus drivers: what can they do?

[Bayum]

I’ve just seen a post on Facebook with a Japanese bus, and the picture captioned something along the lines of, ‘Japanese bus drivers driving buses amid strike to enable Japan to keep moving’. The bus drivers were still driving buses, but not taking fares.

There were a number of comments suggesting that this wouldn’t be able to happen in the UK, but I’m unsure as to why this wouldn’t be able to happen?

 

[deltic]

Well in London it would be pointless as they dont collect fares anyway, outside London majority of passengers are either on free concessionary passes or weekly passes so not sure what impact it would have on revenue collected. There have been strikes by guards in the past on the railways where they have worked normally except for collecting fares.

Seems to me a far better approach as it maintains passenger good will and hits the company where it hurts without losing future business

 

[Domh245]

This is mostly conjecture but, as I understand it, trade union laws allow withdrawal of labour or 'working to rule' as the only - of which driving buses but not collecting fares is neither. You could go on strike and not report for work, or you could work to the very basics of your contract and not do overtime, etc, but coming in and doing a half job (or arguably worse, acting against the company by costing them money but not taking any income (I don't feel that sabotage is the right word, but it's probably not too far off)) isn't allowed as far as I know.

 

[Bayum]

Well in London it would be pointless as they dont collect fares anyway, outside London majority of passengers are either on free concessionary passes or weekly passes so not sure what impact it would have on revenue collected. There have been strikes by guards in the past on the railways where they have worked normally except for collecting fares.

Seems to me a far better approach as it maintains passenger good will and hits the company where it hurts without losing future business

Well, I did think the TfL wouldn’t be too adversely affected as you say! I find it difficult to believe that anyone striking would be sacked for gross misconduct for running a service without taking fares Surely it’s going to make the company seem more favourable in the eyes of the passenger?

 

[Shaw S Hunter]

The laws governing industrial action in this country allow for the withdrawal of labour subject to certain conditions being met. But strike action is deemed to be an all or nothing situation. Once you turn up for work you are not on strike and your employer is perfectly entitled to expect you to work as per your T's & C's. So in the case of bus drivers refusing to collect fares when they would normally do so would constitute a breach of contract and render them liable to disciplinary action with the full support of employment legislation behind the employer.

 

[PeterC]

Didn't the union get round that once in Chelmsford by hiring buses and running a free service in parallel with First?

 

[DarloRich]

I’ve just seen a post on Facebook with a Japanese bus, and the picture captioned something along the lines of, ‘Japanese bus drivers driving buses amid strike to enable Japan to keep moving’. The bus drivers were still driving buses, but not taking fares.

There were a number of comments suggesting that this wouldn’t be able to happen in the UK, but I’m unsure as to why this wouldn’t be able to happen?

I dont understand what you are asking? Are you asking about the mechanism and legality of striking in the UK or whether bus drivers can refuse to take fares but still run a service?

 

[Dentonian]

Well in London it would be pointless as they dont collect fares anyway, outside London majority of passengers are either on free concessionary passes or weekly passes so not sure what impact it would have on revenue collected. There have been strikes by guards in the past on the railways where they have worked normally except for collecting fares.

Seems to me a far better approach as it maintains passenger good will and hits the company where it hurts without losing future business

Driving, but not collecting fares would have a much bigger effect on Mondays than any other day of the week. "Work to rule" would involve not only refusing to do Overtime but things such as not stopping to pick up or set down at/near obstructed bus stops and pulling the bus into a layby and switching the engine off as soon as Drivers Hours regulations were about to be compromised. I suppose an other way of hitting revenue would be by only driving lightly loaded routes and boycotting money spinners, but presumably "picking and choosing" would breach T&Cs and the Unions couldn't dictate which services strike breakers would cover.

It would be interesting to see what would happen with drivers from a large company going on strike, in terms of management coverage. Here in GM (and the broader North West), we have had two recent examples - one on going off course, as anounced this very afternoon.

That is First Manchester drivers at Rusholme depot striking over the massive wage differentials with other neighbouring depots. This was never going to work because the depot involved only ran three basic routes. Consequently, it was easy for management to get coverage from other depots and amongst themselves to guarantee at least 50% of journeys (virtually 100% of contracted journeys) on each of the three services would run.
Similar principle with the ongoing Northern Rail dispute with similar coverage (either directly or by "bustitution") across nearly all routes during the working day, even if nothing ran early morning or after 1900ish.

But what if say, Stagecoach Manchester went on strike and there was only enough management/strike breakers to cover 10-20% of duties spread across something approaching 100 commercial routes. How would they decide what to run?

 

[Bayum]

I dont understand what you are asking? Are you asking about the mechanism and legality of striking in the UK or whether bus drivers can refuse to take fares but still run a service?

Everyone else has...

Thanks guys! I’m still not entirely convinced, but if striking in this county is based as @Shaw S Hunter stated, then it would appear that hands are tied!

 

[Bletchleyite]

But what if say, Stagecoach Manchester went on strike and there was only enough management/strike breakers to cover 10-20% of duties spread across something approaching 100 commercial routes. How would they decide what to run?

I suspect just the busiest routes.

 

[BestWestern]

Interesting passenger aspect to this, too. Is a passenger potentially committing an offence (or the bus equivalent, whatever that may be) by accepting a journey without payment? In a railway scenario, a Guard or other employee granting them authorisation to travel would cover them, as per the NRCoT. But with a bus journey, I don't know how that might work?

 

[Strat-tastic]

Erm, learn self defence?

 

[Peter Mugridge]

But with a bus journey, I don't know how that might work?

Presumably if the striking staff issue them a ticket but with the value set to zero then that would avoid any potential problems?

 

[Busaholic]

There are probably instances every day in London where an Oyster reader on a bus becomes defective in the course of a journey and the driver waves people on until he gets to the terminus of the bus; this doesn't automatically happen, granted, sometimes they'll be instructed to take the bus out of service straightaway, but other times the bus might do a return trip too, if the garage is at the other end of the route.