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Doncaster possible bus strike - What the Mayor should do going forward

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Ballyheigue

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I'm hearing of possible strike action by First drivers in Doncaster, they are paid less than First drivers in Sheffield. Apparently, should Doncaster drivers get their pay rise then this may lead to Sheffield drivers demanding the same rise which going forward will cause problems for the mayor during franchising.

So, If I were the mayor, this is what I'd do. All drivers uplifted to £25 per hour, paid for by a dramatic increase in fares. The £3 flat fare or what ever it is in South Yorkshire would be uplifted to £4.50 to pay for the rise, after all why should tax payers in South Yorkshire who don't need to, or can't use the bus (e.g they don't live on a bus route to where they need to go) foot the bill for this increase? When passengers stop using the bus, you'd soon see drivers thinking 'am I going to lose my job' and so not kicking up as much of a fuss about pay going forward lol. Yes this may make a mockery of using the bus, but so too will never ending strike action from drivers thinking I want more pay than them rather than job security. If the mayor takes strong indirect action on driver attitudes towards strike action, yes he'll have empty buses but he's allocated funds for them already, he's not having to find additional funding from somewhere more important to foot a big bill each year for pay lol.
 
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whoosh

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The mayor doesn't set bus driver pay for First Group bus drivers. First Group set bus driver pay for First Group bus drivers lol.
 

sytransport

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15 Dec 2023
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Sheffield
I'm hearing of possible strike action by First drivers in Doncaster, they are paid less than First drivers in Sheffield. Apparently, should Doncaster drivers get their pay rise then this may lead to Sheffield drivers demanding the same rise which going forward will cause problems for the mayor during franchising.

So, If I were the mayor, this is what I'd do. All drivers uplifted to £25 per hour, paid for by a dramatic increase in fares. The £3 flat fare or what ever it is in South Yorkshire would be uplifted to £4.50 to pay for the rise, after all why should tax payers in South Yorkshire who don't need to, or can't use the bus (e.g they don't live on a bus route to where they need to go) foot the bill for this increase? When passengers stop using the bus, you'd soon see drivers thinking 'am I going to lose my job' and so not kicking up as much of a fuss about pay going forward lol. Yes this may make a mockery of using the bus, but so too will never ending strike action from drivers thinking I want more pay than them rather than job security. If the mayor takes strong indirect action on driver attitudes towards strike action, yes he'll have empty buses but he's allocated funds for them already, he's not having to find additional funding from somewhere more important to foot a big bill each year for pay lol.
This must be a windup…
 

JD2168

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The dispute is between the driver’s with their union & First. It has nothing to do with the Mayor which is why he hasn’t got involved in it.
 

Megafuss

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5 May 2018
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Spalding
What the Mayor should do is encourage both sides to get round the table and sort it out.

What they shouldn't do is specify what wages drivers should be paid when it comes to franchising as they will learn a very harsh lesson in the economic realities of running a bus service.
 
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