Protests will take place in London this week in the ongoing pay row between Go North East and its drivers.

Drivers are striking indefinitely in a row over pay and conditions, which Unite says makes those in the North East £5,000 a year worse off than their counterparts at sister company Go North West.

Workers have rejected a pay offer which Go North East says would make them the highest paid in the region, taking their hourly rate to £14.15 an hour and boosting their pay by 10.3%, requesting equal pay with colleagues in the North West.

Unite members will protest in the capital on Tuesday and Wednesday (November 28/29)

Protests will take place outside the head offices of Go North East parent company the Go Ahead Group, Govia – also owned by Go Ahead, the UK Bus Awards, and the London Transport Museum where a panel discussion featuring a Go Ahead boss is to take place on Wednesday.

The dispute is currently at a stalemate with neither side budging in negotiations.

Meanwhile bus services remain largely suspended with some skeleton services being driven by office workers and managers between 9.30am and 2.30pm.

It comes as Unite has launched a ‘leverage campaign’ which will see it direct “significant resources and manpower” to engaging with Go Ahead’s directors, shareholders, clients.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Go North East have had every chance to resolve this dispute and could do so with the stroke of a pen and just a tiny percentage of their annual profits.

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“Yet they continue to pay poverty wages to workers in the North East, treating them as cheap labour, while pay inflation-busting six-figure salaries to their Chief Executive.

“Unite’s new leverage campaign is going to bring the protests and the dispute to the doorstep of Go Ahead, their directors, their suppliers, their customers and the politicians and communities in which they operate.”

On Friday (November 24) it was announced drivers would be balloted again on continuing their industrial action. The ballot will close on December 7.

The fresh ballot is necessary as despite protracted negotiations the company has not formally made an improved offer to its workers.