Transport bosses from Go North East have claimed that officials from Unite walked out of talks after four hours, as they allege that the 'misery' for bus passengers is not on them.
The regional transport group held talks with the union on Monday (November 6) in a bid to resolve the Go North East driver pay dispute that has been ongoing for weeks.
At the end of the negotiations, both sides claimed that talks failed after a lack of 'understanding' from the opposite side of the industrial action.
According to Go North East, Unite demanded pay rises every six months in return for calling off their strike before refusing to continue talks after four hours.
Go North East business director, Ben Maxfield said: “Unite demanded six monthly pay increases: as well as rises backdated to July 2023, and another in July 2024, Unite are now insisting on an additional pay increase on 1 January 2024. All increases they say, must be higher than anything already on the table.
“Passengers are facing unacceptable levels of hardship. But instead of a constructive dialogue, all we get from the local Unite representatives is a set of moving goal posts, escalating demands, and a succession of U-turns.”
“This dispute, this strike, is entirely of Unite’s making. All we want is for the local union representatives to work constructively and collaboratively with us to secure a resolution.
“New demands for six-monthly pay rises will only add to mounting anger within the workforce, and from the public, over Unite’s handling of negotiations. It is impossible to negotiate with a union hell bent on disruption rather than dialogue.”
However, Unite has said that the dispute can be resolved for around £238,000, less than the pay of two Go North East directors.
The union has calculated that the dispute can be ended with just 0.28% of the annual profit of the Go North East group.
Unite regional officer Dave Telford added: "Our members’ resolve has not waivered, and we will not back down until we have victory in this dispute.
"We put various offers on the table today for the employer to accept and every time Go North East just refused to budge.
"There is only one party currently wishing to negotiate and that’s Unite.
"I urge Go North East to put their hands in their pockets and come up with the money that it will cost them to end this dispute."
Following the negotiations on Monday, Go North East has claimed that the company’s offer of a 10.3 per cent pay increase would make the drivers the best-paid in the region.
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Ben Maxfield added: “Coming on the back of the 10% increase our drivers received in July last year, our offer means they will have had a 20% pay rise in just over a year.
“Unite had been hanging their hat on references to North East drivers ‘earning less’ than their counterparts in Manchester.
"However, Manchester drivers work to far more flexible scheduling rules. Unite confirmed to us that they would not want to swap their package of wages and conditions for that of Manchester or anywhere else. They want to keep their conditions as they are now.”
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