BUS drivers from Bow bus garage walked out on strike from 5am yesterday over exhausting schedules, inadequate rest breaks, and systematic disregard for their wellbeing.
Pickets outside the east London depot carried placards reading ‘Fair schedules now’ and ‘No more long shifts.’
The garage operates routes from Hainault in Essex to Marble Arch in central London.
David M, a driver of three years, said conditions had become untenable. ‘The reason why we’re striking is fatigue, as the schedules that we’re given are unreasonable and unfair.
‘Stagecoach is a multi-million pound company and they want to continue treating drivers badly. The amount of accidents that are happening on a daily basis is unreal.’ He said management insisted toilet stops should take no more than three minutes.
‘They say it should take just three minutes, which is not practical.’ Fatigue, he added, fed directly into road danger. ‘If you do have an accident, the drivers are blamed by the company. You’re pulled in for a disciplinary meeting.’
Drivers also have little say over holidays or lieu days. ‘If you can’t find a swap, you can’t take the holiday. All we want is fair working conditions,’ said David.
Adis said staff cuts had piled pressure onto those remaining: ‘They’re cutting drivers and that means that those of us remaining have to cover more work. When you call them to say that you’re fatigued, you get called to the office.’
Ernest pointed to the lack of facilities: ‘We get less than an hour break. By the time you walk back and forth, you’re losing 5 to 7 minutes. The garage hasn’t got any parking facilities for us.
‘We have to wait a long time for a night bus to go home. We want them to consider our needs.’
Unite shop steward Louise Cocker said drivers were doing ten-hour duties with only 40-minute breaks. Late running could reduce end-of-route rests to five minutes.
‘That’s not really a break.’ She said the official 38-hour week masked a real working week of 44 hours because dinner breaks go unpaid – affecting 380 drivers, with only a handful of TUPE-transferred staff exempt.
Workers at Lea Interchange, another Stagecoach garage, had also gone on strike, she noted. ‘Money doesn’t address tiredness,’ she said.
The root cause, she said was the privatisation of London Transport in 1994 and the competitive tendering that followed.
‘East London bus drivers deserve better. Even drivers in their thirties feel tired all the time,’ said Cocker.
