Around 200 staff at McGill’s-owned Xplore Dundee, including drivers, duty managers, platform staff and administrative staff, have confirmed they will be among the next to strike in a dispute over pay, reports the Dundee Courier, after the rejection of a 7% pay offer. Led by trade union Unite, the call for strikes comes after Xplore Dundee used a staff wage rise as part of the justification for raising fares in April before a wage rise had been confirmed, the newspaper reports.
Xplore has confirmed it will not be moving on the 7% offer. Unite said that of an 88.6% turnout for the strike ballot, 93% of workers backed strike action.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Xplore Dundee workers have emphatically backed strike action. The company need to realise, and quickly, that our members are not prepared to accept what amounts to a pay cut. Xplore Dundee can pay more and they must because if they don’t, the city’s only bus operator will be brought to a stop.”
Xplore Dundee told the newspaper that the move was ‘deeply disappointing’ and that the 7% offer was a fair offer that sought to balance increased wages with the need to keep the business profitable, and that alternative options, including a two-year deal, were rejected by the Union. “It is regrettable that bus services in Dundee will be affected by Unite’s action whilst staff in other parts of the McGill’s Group around Scotland – including the maintenance department in Dundee – have agreed a deal that is up to or equal to what has been offered in Dundee. It would seem that this deal is unacceptable only with driving staff in Dundee,” a spokesperson said.
