Bus drivers accept pay offer

In a ballot held by the Transport and General Workers' Union yesterday, only 57.6 per cent of members supported a 12 per cent deal over two years.

It means the lengthy stand-off between the union and Lothian Buses is finally over.

But the result was much closer than expected, with 460 votes against the pay deal and 627 in favour.

After the union came out in support of the latest offer, it had been expected that its members would overwhelmingly back moves to end the dispute.

The damaging row has already led to three days of strikes and one unofficial wildcat strike.

Lothian Buses welcomed the news and said the company can now look to the future and press ahead with plans to improve services and introduce two new park-and-rides in the city - all of which had been delayed by the strike action.

Pilmar Smith, Lothian Buses chairman, said: "We are pleased that this latest offer has been accepted.

"We can now well and truly get back to normal, and look towards introducing service improvements and additional services next month."

In May, a pay increase of five per cent, with strings attached, was rejected by almost 1000 Lothian Buses drivers in a ballot. The T&G called for a 6.15 per cent flat pay increase and stuck to this target throughout the lengthy negotiations.

In July, 82 per cent of members voted to support strike action, which resulted in a one-day strike, followed by a weekend strike later in the month.

But on August 3, a group of militant bus drivers staged a wildcat strike which took around half the city's buses off the roads for three hours - leaving passengers stranded.

The T&G felt it had lost public support and was forced to accept a new three-stage pay deal of 12 per cent.

But the offer was someway off what the union originally called for. It was pushing for rises to 8.78 an hour backdated to March 27, 9 an hour from December 4 and - the only substantially different element to previous offers - 9.50 from March 4, 2007.

Nobody from the Transport and General Workers' Union was available for comment today.