Hundreds of buses sit parked at government-contractor CDC’s depots in Geelong, Ballarat and parts of Melbourne as nearly 600 of their drivers walked-off the job for a full day today demanding a wage revision.
The drivers many of them of Indian-origin are seeking a four per cent increase in their wages along with a one per cent boost in their superannuation.
Speaking to SBS Punjabi, Avtar Singh who has been driving for the bus operator for the last 13 years feels the offered wage hike of 2.5 per cent was not sufficient.
CDC bus drivers on strike in Melbourne Source: Supplied
“CDC is a big fish. They have a lot of depots here in Melbourne and also in Sydney. And if you look closely at their last annual report, you would see that the operator has made a lot of profit in the past. A little hike should not harm them.”
“It’s a total lock down, we do know that a lot of commuters have been affected, but the strike is our only resort to convince CDC to heed to our demands”, added Mr Singh.
Another Punjabi driver of the same name informed SBS Punjabi that the drivers are also protesting against the proposed split shift system that the operator is reportedly planning to roll-out for the new recruits.
“They are planning to split our current shift hours meaning if a driver is currently working from 7 am to 3 pm, if this plan is implemented, he would now drive from 7 am to 11:30 am and then again get behind the wheel from 3 pm t0 7:30 pm. It is totally impractical.”
“Although we have been told that they are planning to start this split system with the new drivers, but we suspect it would soon be applied to all the drivers”, said Mr Singh.
Meanwhile, many commuters who weren’t aware of the strike were left stranded at bus terminals, some of them opting to take taxis to meet urgent appointments.
21-year-old Sukhpreet Sohi, who takes the morning bus from Geelong to Deakin University at least thrice in a week told SBS Punjabi that she chose to return home instead of “wasting more money or time” on looking out for other means of transport on such a cold day.
“It was so cold, I thought it would be better to stay at home than wandering around in this weather to get to a train station and taxi is not something I can afford. It’s too expensive on such a long route”, added Ms Sohi.
Transport Workers Union which represents the bus drivers has threatened further strikes in the coming days in case the negotiations fail between the two sides.
