Company fails to improve pay offer to hundred of drivers
 
Unite the union can confirm today (21 May) that around 430 Stagecoach drivers will take strike action over six weeks after a breakdown in pay talks.
 
Bus services are set to stop across the west of Scotland after Stagecoach West Scotland failed to use last ditch pay talks to improve on a four per cent “strings attached” offer which was tabled last November and emphatically rejected by the membership.
 
Strike action will take place on 26 May, 2 and 6 June. It will then be followed by six weeks of continuous action starting on 9 June lasting until 21 July.
 
The strike action will impact Stagecoach West Scotland operating out of several depots in Ayr, Arran, Ardrossan, and Kilmarnock servicing passengers across bus routes in Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow. The bus depots in Dumfries and Galloway are not involved in this phase of strike action.
Unite members have voted by 98 per cent to take industrial following the emphatic rejection of the four per cent pay offer. The union has continued to highlight that the current pay offer is ‘unacceptable’ as it would leave the drivers one of the poorest paid across Stagecoach’s UK operations. 
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Stagecoach West Scotland is a profitable company. It is making money on the back of our members’ hard work and long hours. The company can end this dispute at any moment by putting forward a fair offer.”
 
Scheduled strike action was previously suspended to allow further talks after the company withdrew a threat of cancelling the drivers’ annual leave entitlement.
 
Unite stated unless the threat was withdrawn it would seek an interim interdict against the company on the grounds of preventing discrimination against our members for trade union activities.
 
The company which trades under the name Western Buses Limited made a profit after tax of £2.99m in 2024 up from £1.3m in 2023. The company’s revenues also increased to £59.7m up from £50.9m over the same period.
 
Siobhan McCready, Unite industrial officer, said: “Stagecoach West Scotland have not improved their pay offer in six months. The drivers are being asked to fund a pay rise by working longer hours, taking longer unpaid breaks and losing a week of annual leave. This is simply unacceptable, and it will not be tolerated by Unite.”
 
“Widespread and prolonged industrial action is set to hit bus services across the west of Scotland because this company doesn’t seem capable of listening to its workers. It’s not right that the drivers are the lowest paid across the whole of the Stagecoach group. Our members deserve a fair rate and that’s what we are determined to get for them.”
 
ENDS 
 
Notes to Editor  
 
For media enquiries please contact Andrew Brady on 07810157922.
 
Email andrew.brady@unitetheunion.org  Unite Scotland is the country’s biggest and most diverse trade union with around 150,000 members. The union is led in Scotland by Derek Thomson.