logo
Stagecoach drivers end strike action after 11.5% pay uplift agreed

Stagecoach drivers end strike action after 11.5% pay uplift agreed

Independent9 hours ago

Stagecoach bus drivers have ended strike action after accepting a new pay deal.
Walkouts by drivers in the west of Scotland have been ongoing since June 9 and were scheduled to last until July 21.
The industrial dispute directly impacted Stagecoach West Scotland operations out of depots in Ayr, Arran, Ardrossan and Kilmarnock, servicing passengers across bus routes in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow.
But Unite the union said on Friday it had secured an 11.5% pay uplift for 430 drivers in an 18-month deal.
The union said it amounts to an increase, backdated to January, which takes basic hourly pay from £13 per hour to £14 in June this year.
From February 2026, the rate will be lifted to £14.50 until July next year when pay negotiations will be renewed.
Sharon Graham, Unite general secretary, said: 'Unite's members at Stagecoach West Scotland have stood firm to get an improved pay offer.
'The dispute has been resolved only through the brave stance of the drivers taking strike action.
'This dispute was all about decency and fair pay. Unite will always stand up for our members fighting for better jobs, pay and conditions.'
Siobhan McCready, Unite industrial officer, said: 'The drivers were only asking to be paid at a rate similar to other Stagecoach drivers across the UK.
'The pay deal will take our members to a level that represents significant progress from where this dispute started.
'Strike action is now over and our members can get back to doing what they do best, which is to provide a first rate bus service for communities across the west of Scotland.'
A spokesperson for Stagecoach said: 'We are pleased that our drivers have voted overwhelmingly to accept the pay deal.
'We want to thank our communities for their patience during the disruptive industrial action earlier this month and we now return our focus to ensuring we deliver our essential services to keep communities in Ayrshire connected.'

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Train ticket website sues Transport Secretary after making claims about 'secret' £32million agreement involving state-owned firm
Train ticket website sues Transport Secretary after making claims about 'secret' £32million agreement involving state-owned firm

Daily Mail​

time2 hours ago

  • Daily Mail​

Train ticket website sues Transport Secretary after making claims about 'secret' £32million agreement involving state-owned firm

Trainline has sued Labour's Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander over allegations she snubbed them by offering a £32million contract elsewhere. State-owned London North Eastern Railway (LNER), which has been run by the Department for Transport (DfT) since 2018, was said to have recently extended a ticketing sales platform contract. But the company did not offer rivals like Trainline the chance to bid for the 10-year-deal, it is claimed. Trainline has alleged the failure to seek alternative bids means due process was ignored - as were the best interests of passengers and the taxpayer. LNER reportedly awarded the contract for the central booking engine that supports its digital ticket sales to Australia's Vix Technology. Trainline also alleges the publication of the award on the Government's website on December 23 was too opaque as it buried the news during Christmas week, limiting the ability of other parties to respond. It comes as Trainline, who would have expected to compete for the work, has its own rival division which provides a similar 'white label' service to train operators. The company is understood to be claiming that a direct award of the contract was not permissible under procurement law because the terms were varied in scope, duration and beneficiaries. Given the terms of the award, the ticketing platform used by LNER, which operates between London Kings Cross and Scotland via Leeds and Newcastle, could be extended across the rail network. However, both LNER and the DfT have denied a new contract exists saying the allegations are 'categorically untrue'. Rail Unions have previously raised concerns about third party ticket operators like Trainline, accusing the company of being engaged in 'relentless profiteering'. Despite the government's plans for simplification through the nationalisation of its railway, it has maintained there would still be a need for 'an innovative and competitive third-party retail market'. Labour also ruled out establishing a national website and app to promote to promote cheaper fares in competition with the firm. But in guidance from January it said a plan to bring together ticket websites of individual operators was now in the pipeline. An LNER spokesman said of Trainline's allegations: 'This is unequivocally untrue. No such contract exists. Trainline is aware this is the case as we explicitly advised them as much earlier this month.' A DfT spokesman added: 'This is completely and categorically untrue – not least because no such contract exists, which Trainline is well aware after being explicitly told as much by LNER earlier this month. 'The Department has been clear we are working industry to simplify ticketing for customers, as part of the biggest overhaul of our railways in a generation.' Trainline has suggested it is challenging the lack of opportunity for alternative providers to bid, regardless of whether a contract has been entered into at this point in time. The company has filed a claim at the Technology and Construction Court.

Could Glasgow's skyline be set to change with skyscrapers?
Could Glasgow's skyline be set to change with skyscrapers?

BBC News

time4 hours ago

  • BBC News

Could Glasgow's skyline be set to change with skyscrapers?

Think of skyscrapers and images come to mind of New York City's skyline, or hundreds of buildings soaring above the streets of Hong could Glasgow be poised for a similar boom in tall buildings?The city council formally approved its new tall buildings policy on Thursday, with a design guide establishing what areas could benefit from construction, such as Charing Cross and local authority hope the plans would lure more developers to the city, building upwards and therefore creating more accommodation and also space for businesses - at a time when land for development is becoming limited. It's a strategy other cities in the UK have pursued in recent years, with London and Manchester building clusters of skyscrapers at Scotland News understands the hope from some in the city council is that the new policy would shatter misconceptions regarding Glasgow having limits on building heights, and therefore encourage more interest from the moment the city's tallest building - the tower at the Science Centre by the River Clyde - is under the minimum height for a skyscraper, which is taller than 150m. It sits at began last year on the Ard development in Blythswood Hill, a 36-storey tower of student accommodation. But some of the city's tall buildings already lie vacant, while large blocks of flats - like on Wyndford Road - have been demolished in recent to redevelop the 14-storey Met Tower as a digital tech hub were cancelled last year. The new design guide doesn't set sights quite so high, defining tall buildings via various factors - including how it's perceived on street level and how it affects the skyline around highest category - metropolitan - is classed as a building three and a half times above the height of "the broader context" surrounding it, meaning somewhere like the Met Gerry Hogan, who works with the firm Collective Architecture, believes the policy is quite conservative, but welcome nonetheless."We've been a little reticent to be bold with in our approach to tall buildings, and arguably with architecture in Glasgow generally," he says. "If anything, the guide doesn't go far enough – they go through a very careful analysis of where tall buildings should be located and it doesn't give much encouragement for parts of the city." That belief is centred on the guide's suggestion on placing larger spaces - ideally mixed-use developments with shops or leisure facilities below housing - in certain parts of the city, therefore avoiding clashes with conservation areas like Pollok Park. Russell Baxter, a director with architecture and engineering firm NORR, believes the guide encourages clusters of buildings together."If you look at London, there's a lot of clusters there," he says. "It has a very protected skyline, so things like cathedrals and churches are retained, and key views are retained – that's everything in these cities. "So in Glasgow something like Trinity Tower at Park Circus is a key view – you can't obliterate that view for people. The idea is to cluster them together so you get a number of them in one area - the edge of the motorway is always seen as a place where that can happen." Mr Hogan believes that the quality of the new builds themselves will be key to making them a success, wherever they are situated in the city."A tall building is the same as any building, it comes down to how good it is," he explains. "Sure, height is a factor but if it's well designed and how it sits in the skyline has been considered then there's no reason it couldn't be put in more sensitive areas if they were well enough designed."What this seeks to promote, and what I agree with, is having multi-use buildings that bring in people throughout the day and engage people in using both the building and the wider area around it. "You don't want it putting a nearby park in the shade for example." 'You have to justify these buildings' Cllr Ruairi Kelly, the convener for development and land use at Glasgow city council, said the proposals will play a "significant role in our ambition to grow the city centre population" through providing a housing Manchester's recent boom in tall buildings was driven by public money, in particular the £300m Greater Manchester Housing Investment Glasgow will have to box clever, including with locations."You've not got the ability to do what you could do in Victorian times where you could just place a church or town hall at the end of a street, like a church being right on Ingram Street," says Mr Baxter. "If you go down Buchanan Street and the way the station entrance is sitting there – those were classic Victorian moves for how you masterplan cities and those buildings were key public buildings. "Now what you get are all buildings that are full of students and you have to justify them taking up these key positions."The guidance itself was drawn up through a public consultation and feedback from designers, developers and amenity Baxter believes the guidance will be helpful, even if the city having its own version of the Burj Khalifa remains a pie in the sky thought for now. "At the end of the day, you're not going to stop developers building tall. So what you need to do is control it, and that's what the policy is there to do – control where they are and control the quality of them."

Some refuse workers will lose money
Some refuse workers will lose money

BBC News

time5 hours ago

  • BBC News

Some refuse workers will lose money

The leader of Birmingham City Council has admitted for the first time some refuse workers will lose money under plans to reform the workers who are members of Unite the Union have been in a stand-off with the Labour-run council over proposed changes to roles and pay, since January. In an exclusive interview with the BBC, council leader John Cotton said he "absolutely understood" there would be "implications for individuals", but the authority had to "implement job evaluation fairly across the council". Unite claims 170 workers face an annual pay cut of £8,000, but the authority has said only 17 members of staff lose up to £6,000 - something Cotton had not acknowledged publicly. Cotton stressed that the council continued to negotiate with Unite in order to find a "reasonable settlement" to "reflect the workforce's concerns".He denied claims from Unite that the deal to end the dispute had been "watered down" and said the authority had provided a "fair and reasonable offer", which was being discussed by arbitration body Acas. All-out strike action in the city began on 11 March and rubbish has continued to pile up on streets, but securing a legal injunction in May enabled more bin lorries to to be brought in to clear the mountains of bin bags."Regarding the city as a whole, since we secure the injunction and have been able to deploy our available fleet we have collected 33,498 tonnes and average 1,288 per day which includes weekends," a spokesperson for the city council said."We have cleared the backlog so are now able to continue to implement our contingency plan, providing residents with one collection each week." 'Avoid repeating mistakes' The leader of the Labour-run authority described the situation as "incredibly frustrating" and said it continued to urge Unite to accept the offer it had placed on the table. "This strike needs to end so we can carry on with transforming the waste service and ensuring everyone gets the services they're entitled to," Cotton the council leader added that he had "set some straight red lines" to avoid "repeating some of the mistakes that happened in the past"."We have had to take a look at the grading of the driver roles, that is part of the process we have signed up to together with the trade unions, it is a recognised methodology for evaluating jobs."He said a negotiated settlement was "in everyone's interest" and it would allow the council to "get back to the business of improving the waste service in the city". Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store