IN 2016 our country still has a serious pay inequality problem. Not only that we live in a time when thousands of workers suffer under zero hour contracts. The National Living Wage (Living Wage Foundation, 2016) and seasonal job instability are other factors that contribute to increases in desperate problems for our society. These range from personal debt to domestic abuse caused by the pressure of such debt (Get Domestic Violence Help, 2016), and families dipping below the poverty line, therefore incurring a greater demand for universal (working) tax credits (The Poverty Site, 2016; The Guardian, 2015). For a long time we have acknowledged that poor pay and working conditions are a major contribution in this country to anxiety, stress, and levels of mental illness also.
Therefore, I do not think it unreasonable that Weymouth and Bridport bus drivers would use their right to strike for better pay equality and look to their local community for support in this. Simply, the bus drivers with First Dorset are on strike because right now Yeovil drivers receive 70p more and Poole and Bournemouth drivers receive £2 more per hour for the exact same job. Yes, that’s the same as working in a shop or an office and receiving less pay for …. being a woman, for example. Wait a minute, didn’t we change that law?
If we think it is unacceptable that women be paid less for the same job as a man, then why is it acceptable to pay someone less for the same job because of a slight difference in location? Slight, because this is not the difference between metropolitan and rural areas, or Central and Greater London with the associated cost of living and inflation. This is Yeovil and Poole, two very large towns, and Weymouth a fast-growing urban centre as well as traditional resort town.
It seems rather insulting that Weymouth drivers’ service is valued at a lesser rate than their colleagues across the South West region.
If that weren’t exasperating enough for the employees, it is a matter of public record that First Dorset made £52 million in profit last year (£117 million before tax, which could be used for upping drivers pay), and paid management in Hampshire and Dorset a share of that amounting to £800,000. The pay-gap problem results in workers feeling exploited. The emphasis on profits and profit-sharing in companies that provide a public service, such as transport, distorts the picture. A bus service, like healthcare and education, is an essential lifeline in our region. Dorset communities depend upon their public transport, a service that was once in public ownership. Drivers alone operate the vehicle, and they are our first and only point of contact with First Dorset. Perhaps the company should remember that? An increase to £9 per hour across two years for those drivers is just not good enough. That’s not a negotiated position, that’s continuing exploitation. (The Dorset Eye, 2016). And, it’s not good business sense.
The strikers have been criticised and called selfish and ‘reckless’ by Marc Reddy, Managing Director of First Dorset (Dorset Echo, 28 June, 2016), and accused of trying to ‘cause as much damage to our business as possible’. Damage to business, but what about damage to the community and the workers’ sense of feeling valued and able to perform their job as a proper service to the passengers? Is it selfish to hope for stability and equality of pay that amounts to pence per hour? Those in public services working on low pay, and doing the total job, such as carers and in this case bus drivers, deserve respect and the right to withdraw their labour if they are being exploited.
We appear to be fed the idea that we should not over-value ourselves. We are encouraged to allow our employers to undervalue us because the country faces ‘austerity’ measures. This is an outdated Victorian mentality when if you objected to poor pay and working conditions you were ‘reckless’ and easily replaced. What harm does it cause to business to value employees? Organisations with longevity are more often those that take care of their staff. Recently, in both Germany and Japan (economies that our government have long held up as examples of prosperity for us to imitate) have emerged from deficit by using such ‘socialist’ ideas such as stakeholder companies, that allow employees to receive benefits from owning a small stake in the company, and doing away with hierarchy in decision making. Such businesses and economies have learnt from the vast research that is out there on social stability (Gladwell, 2016; Academia, 2016). When staff members are happy it follows that customers are happy.
In 1970, Prime Minister Harold Wilson introduced the Equal Pay Act, followed by the Sexual Discrimination Act (1975), and in 1976 the Race Relations Act. These were so important in political history and social well-being. They helped to start the change in landscape for those of ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, and women. Why does it now seem acceptable to create a world of privilege and inequality by ensuring ‘poverty pay’ in one of the most deprived parts of Dorset? And those that object to it are considered dangerous to society. First Dorset might consider themselves unassailable – they have a monopoly. But as every economist will tell you: monopolies are artificial constructs and never good for business.
People, society, and business are made vulnerable if there is a lack of consistent, stable and reasonable pay and work. Equality needs to be addressed here, and the unions are encouraging people to have a voice. We may not think it affects us, but so many people I know regret, at least once in their lifetime, that they did not join a union and gain that back-up for jobprotection, legal representation, andcamaraderie.
Importantly, if the First bus drivers are able to win some value with their employers, if they are able to actually have some dignity in their workplace, then that will be a start in leading the way for others, who feel down trodden, sick and tired and hopeless in their jobs. The Union for the First bus drivers unite and bob Lanning are ready and willing to go on normal terms of arbitration, but not the binding terms of untried and untested arbitration. Trust me, I’ve been there, you don’t have to accept it. Join a Union, protect yourself, fight back and feel safe doing so. “United we stand Divided we fall” is not just a good motto for unions and activists, it’s good for communities and our country.
Cllr Kimber, Cllr Roos, Cllr Weaving and Cllr Orrell call on First Bus company to sit down with their Trade Unions and resolve this pay dispute, many people in Weymouth and Portland are concerned about the pay gap for our local drivers. Supporting the strike on Monday the morning 8th August were Tim Nicholls local TUC President, and Cllr Kimber, Cllr Roos, Cllr Weaving and Cllr Orrell and momentum representatives.
If you want to support the bus drivers, donations and supportive comments can be given to Tim Nicholls at [email protected].
Cllr Tia Roos
Public Information
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_employment_equality_law
