Strike ‘will bring Inverness buses run by Stagecoach Highlands to a halt’, warns union Unite after pay offer rejected
Buses in Inverness could grind to a halt if drivers vote in favour of strike action, a union has warned after a pay offer was rejected.
Strike action looks set to disrupt Stagecoach Highland bus services after the Unite union rejected an “unacceptable” pay deal.
Around 120 members of the Unite union based in Inverness voted to reject the offer by Stagecoach Highlands, which would have resulted in a four per cent rise from July, with a further 2.5 per cent increase in January next year, and followed by a three per cent rise from July 2025 which would run for a year.
READ MORE: Stagecoach cancels almost 50 Inverness bus services over ‘driver sickness’
The union said its 120 local members had rejected the offer by an “emphatic” 94.6 per cent.
A fresh ballot will now take place, beginning today and closing on October 24 to decide on possible strike action. If members vote for industrial action, then bus services could be disrupted from as soon as early November, with the union warning that the strike would “bring bus services around the Inverness area to a halt”.
It is not clear how much a strike would affect surrounding areas, but with 120 drivers being balloted, the knock-on impacts would likely extend well beyond the city.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Stagecoach in the Scottish Highlands is guilty of stockpiling money while making a pay offer that simply doesn’t reflect our members' hard work.
“We will back our Stagecoach members all the way in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”
Highland Country Buses Limited, which is the name the company is registered under, forms part of the wider Stagecoach Group. In its last accounts, the union said the company recorded profits after tax amounting to £1.71m in 2023 up from £448,000 in the previous year.
Marc Jackson, Unite industrial officer, said: “Unite’s bus drivers across Inverness and the Highlands deserve fair pay. This is a profitable company that is fully able to make a fair pay offer.
“If company doesn’t move then strike action involving our drivers is on the horizon. Stagecoach will be entirely responsible for this situation because it has the ways and means to prevent it.”
