Article 'SMH' Newspapers - Regarding Bus Operaters Refusal To Go Down Small Streets

Fair Work inquiry into bus drivers' route bans ANDREW WEST TRANSPORT
November 14, 2009


BUS drivers in western Sydney face prosecution by the Federal Government's industrial relations umpire for refusing to drive on streets where hooligans throw rocks at passing vehicles and have assaulted passengers.

Despite support from police, and the sympathy of bus company managers, the Fair Work Australia Ombudsman is investigating drivers for allegedly violating work agreements by imposing ''route bans''.

The issue is set to explode at this weekend's NSW Labor conference, when the Transport Workers Union is expected to take the issue directly to the Deputy Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, who oversees the ombudsman's office. Ms Gillard is scheduled to address the conference tomorrow morning.

A spokesman for the ombudsman, Craig Bildstein, confirmed the agency was investigating staff at Busways, who have imposed bans on Discovery Avenue in Willmot and Sedgman Drive and Emerson Road in Shalvey.

''The Fair Work Ombudsman has received complaints alleging several instances of unlawful industrial action by bus drivers employed by Busways,'' Mr Bildstein told the Herald. ''The investigation is ongoing and I cannot comment further at this stage.''

Busways management did not return the Herald's call but last year a Busways manager said if attacks continued, ''we will seriously consider a ban''.

Tony Sheldon, the national secretary of the Transport Workers Union, which represents drivers, said his members were not in a dispute over pay or conditions but were trying to protect their own safety and passengers.

''The Ombudsman's office have told us they are not concerned about safety issues,'' '' he said. ''But if rock throwing, or bus drivers being assaulted, means they cannot refuse to drive down a street where it is constantly happening, then no worker has any rights in Australia over safety.''

The NSW Police Association has supported the drivers' decision to avoid dangerous streets. ''It is perfectly reasonable for drivers to put bans on streets where it is unsafe,'' the association's secretary, Peter Remfrey, said. Parts of western Sydney and regional NSW have become no-go zones for drivers in the past four years.

In August 2006, bus drivers, the TWU and representatives of the Ministry of Transport agreed to withdraw some bus services in the Penrith and Blacktown areas.

In January last year, a driver narrowly avoided being hit by a bottle in Wilmot, while four other drivers were robbed by assailants wielding knives or syringes. Two months later, four rock attacks on buses over two days in Campbelltown led to a review of routes.

In 2007, a series of rock-throwing incidents, and a robbery in Mount Druitt in which an assailant placed a gun to the head of a driver, provoked the first ban on routes.

Mr Sheldon said the Ombudsman's investigation over a safety issue would create a backlash in the community.

''I can only think they are trying to set up the Federal Government,'' he said.