‘Stop the buses’: Disrupted day as strike action hits Melbourne

Dyson and Ventura employ more than 3000 people and have more than 1300 buses in their fleet. The strike action lasts until 4am on Saturday.

More than 50 Ventura bus routes across Melbourne’s eastern, southern and northern suburbs are not running, including popular routes from Box Hill station to Deakin University. Ventura’s Specialist School and NightBus services are not affected by the strike action. Ventura did not respond to requests for comment.

The union claimed Dyson was forced to take 450 buses off the road across metropolitan Melbourne, affecting at least 80 metro routes and 100 school runs. Dyson disputed this estimate, but did not provide an alternative number.

A third of Melbourne’s buses continued operating after bus operator Kinetic reached an agreement with drivers during crisis talks on Tuesday.

Transport Workers Union branch secretary Mike McNess said the strike was a “last resort” for bus drivers. He said almost half the bus drivers across the city’s northern and south-eastern suburbs had joined the action.

Paul Addamo, 64, has been a bus driver for 30 years, half of which has been spent driving Dyson buses in Melbourne’s northern suburbs.

Addamo said work conditions such as regular start and finish times needed to be better managed. “There’s no work-life balance, there’s no sleep.”

The full-time driver said that on some days he would work a five-hour shift, while on others he would work up to 14 hours. “It’s all over the place,” he said.

Driver Ravneet Sohi, 31, also pleaded for a better rostering system, saying he often missed out on quality time with his two children because of inconsistent rostering.

Chris Lowe, executive director of Bus Association Victoria, the industry representative for bus operators in Victoria, said the union demands were “unreasonable”.

“The only way the TWU terms would be accepted is if the government is prepared to pay, which they aren’t,” he said.

The union’s list of demands include proscribed minimum pay increases for the next three years, and reducing the heavy vehicle rest break time from the current national standard of five hours to three hours.

McNess said the union and Ventura had reached an initial agreement on wages but Dysons had “brought nothing to the table”.

Lowe, who represents Dysons, said the increase in wages would come at a significant cost to the bus company, which was already operating on thin margins.

The state government currently spends $800 million on metro bus services, nearly half of which goes toward labour.

“The cost would be significant for bus companies,” he said.

Union negotiations with Ventura and Dysons are set to continue next week.

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