Adelaide Metro tells city workers to stay home in drivers strike

Adelaide Metro says commuters should stay away from the CBD if they can on Monday due to a strike, so what services are available?

Public transport users have been urged to work from home as bus drivers plan to walk off the job amid a feud with their employer.

Adelaide Metro is encouraging commuters to use other modes of transport or stay at home on Monday with bus services set to be “significantly impacted” by industrial action taken by around 800 Torrens Transit drivers.

The bus company says the strike will affect bus services in East-West, Outer North East (O-Bahn), North-South and Outer North.

Some substitute bus services will be made available on high traffic city routes only, running to and from the CBD about every 30 minutes.

However, Adelaide Metro warns even the skeletal services on offer may need to be cancelled at short notice due to driver availability.

Adelaide Metro has thanked customers for their patience and apologises for the inconvenience.

In a statement posted online, Adelaide Metro thanked all customers for their patience and apologises for “the inconvenience caused by this industrial action”.

Trains, trams and bus services in the Outer South and Hills will not be affected by the strike action and are expected to operate as normal.

Bus drivers, along with Transport Workers Union (TWU) are demanding an increase in their average hourly rate to immediately jump from about $25 per hour to $32.

They are also demanding a 15 per cent loading for working outside 7am to 7pm, plus improved penalty rates on weekends and safer working conditions.

TWU SA/NT branch secretary Ian Smith said their “reasonable claim” would bring conditions and remuneration in line with interstate drivers.

“Our drivers don’t receive many very basic, standard conditions. They work in a high pressure, increasingly dangerous and unsafe job,” he said.

“Drivers haven’t had a pay increase for two years - and some longer - and are struggling.”

Torrens Transit said it had offered drivers a 5.75 per cent pay rise in the first year of the proposed deal, with annual Wage Price Index increases thereafter.

Mr Malinauskas said the government had limited options because the dispute involved a private company and its employees. “It’s one of the consequences of privatisation of a public service,” he said.

He said the government would do what it could to ease the burden on commuters, but recognised the challenge.

“This affects such a substantial amount of the bus network, it’s almost impossible to replace or replicate.”

Torrens Transit bus drivers will strike for 24 hours next Monday, 9 January as part of their fight for a fair deal and a better bus industry. Picture Dean Martin

Torrens Transit said its offer and previous increases have delivered a 15.5 per cent wage boost between 2018 and 2023. It said the deal sought by bus drivers equated to about a 24 per cent pay rise in the first year of the new deal.

A Torrens Transit spokesman said a meeting with the union was planned for Tuesday, the day after the strike.

“We had hoped to negotiate in good faith and work collaboratively, however, this industrial action from the union does not demonstrate these principles and aims to inconvenience the public,” he said.