Logan, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast bus trips free for next three days as drivers refuse to take fares

Bus trips will be free over the next three days in three South East Queensland council areas with drivers refusing to collect fares as part of a protest over wages and conditions.

Logan City Bus drivers will not be collecting fares for three days as part of a protest to push for better pay and conditions. Pictures: Contributed

Bus trips will be free over the next three days in three southeast Queensland council areas with drivers refusing to collect fares as part of a protest over wages and conditions.

About 500 bus drivers from Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Logan will not check tickets and will allow passengers to ride for free during the Transport Workers Union action, which started at 4am today, September 6, and will end at 4am this Saturday.

All Clarks Logan City services over the three-day action will run to schedule, with the action hitting TransLink ticket takings and not the local bus company’s revenue.

Only Transport Workers Union drivers will be eligible to take the action, which will cut fares on some Sunshine Coast Sunbus services and Kinetic bus fares on the Gold Coast.

There will be three days of no fare collection on most Clark Logan City, Sunbus and Kinetic buses. Picture: Contributed

The drivers and cleaners, all members of the Transport Workers Union, are pushing for annual pay rises greater than 4.5 per cent.

They are also protesting about driver shortages and a lack of investment in public transport.

This week’s action is the third protest the group has taken in two months.

The first action was a bus driver strike at start of August, followed by a similar fare collection protect two weeks ago.

This week’s action will affect about 55 Clarks Logan City bus drivers out of the company’s driving staff of about 140.

A larger number of TWU bus drivers work on Sunbus services, with the impact expected to be greater for Sunshine Coast commuters.

Logan City Bus manager Kaylee Clark said her company had been negotiating pay rises with drivers since March.

Bus drivers held a day of strike action in August as part of their protest for better wages and conditions. Picture: Contributed

She said this week’s action would not affect any of the Logan school buses or public services.

“We have already had the stop action which had some consequences and now we are on to the action which doesn’t affect passengers or impact people’s wages but allows the workers to express their concerns,” Ms Clark said.

“This doesn’t really affect the bus company as the ticket takings all go to TransLink.”

TWU Queensland organising director Jared Abbott called on TransLink to “step up” and meet the workers’ demands and invest more in public transport.

He said a wage rise was long overdue for bus drivers who performed a critical community role.

“Bus drivers work unsociable hours to keep up with public transport demands,” he said.

“Delays and cancellations caused by driver shortages are impacting the public right now.

“We can begin to fix this problem by investing in raising bus drivers’ pay to the level where it needs to be.

“If we’re going to ensure that we have a safe and sustainable public transport network going into the future, we need to be investing in the wages of our bus drivers.”