Bus strike 'cancelled'

Further industrial action was planned for Friday

A planned one-day strike by bus drivers in Northern Ireland scheduled for Friday has been cancelled.

More than 1,700 drivers had been due to hold a second stoppage in a dispute over pay.

However, one of the unions involved in talks at the Labour Relations Agency said strike action had been suspended pending further negotiations.

Drivers had threatened to walk out every Friday for the foreseeable future.

Thursday's talks between GMB and TGWU delegations and management from Translink were arbitrated by the Labour Relations Agency.

Keith Moffatt, Translink's chief executive said a difficult situation had been turned into an opportunity.

'Better service'

"Essentially we have agreed a framework which will allow suspension of the planned strikes and allow positive negotiations to re-open," he said.

"Northern Ireland needs a better bus service, and Translink is committed to delivering this.

"Today has gone some way to achieving this by taking the first step in the direction of modernising staff agreements and redesigning bus services."

A spokesman for the Transport and General Workers Union confirmed that strike action had been suspended pending further talks.

In a statement, he said: "After lengthy talks yesterday (Thursday) between the trade unions at Translink, including the Amalgamated Transport and General Workers Union, and the employers, it was agreed that the unions would suspend the planned industrial action to allow further negotiations.

The strike affected Ulsterbus and Citybus services

"The AT&G shop stewards have endorsed this agreement today so the action for tomorrow (Friday) has been called off.

"Union and company officials are now discussing dates and venues for these new talks."

About 65,000 school children had to find other ways to get to class last Friday because of the strike.

Translink had previously refused to take part in further negotiations with bus drivers' unions while staff continued to strike.

The company failed to get a High Court injunction to block last week's strike action.

All Citybus and Ulsterbus services were off the road across 300 Translink routes, affecting about 180,000 passengers.

The drivers want a pay rise to compensate for loss of income caused by an EU directive limiting overtime.

The drivers' unions have said they are not happy with the current offer on the table because their members' wages were so low.

Drivers' basic salaries are about £13,500 which they supplement with overtime of about £5,000 a year.

But the new European directive will limit overtime hours, so unions want to raise the level of basic pay significantly.

The unions have planned further strikes on 31 October and 7 and 10 November.