I read on the Facebook page that the Drivers only get between £180 and £260 a week, which some drivers is under £1000 per month or literally just over.

Which result in a GNE Bus Driver earning between £8,640 and £12,480 per year.

When I first looked at it for the month, I thought that's quite a bit for a month for a Bus Driver until you work out there yearly earning, and then logic sets in and you are stunned by how little they earn per year, and then if you they have bills to pay, kids if they have any to cater for, would actually leave them with not much money left depending on cost of bills etc.

The drivers have been offered 4.5% which in money terms is an extra £1000 per year which means drivers would between just under £10,000 and just over £13,000. But I personally if I was a Bus Driver GNE I would be pushing it over the 10%, no higher than 15%, which I think is very reasonable considering the offer of 4.5% already on the table. Take the 15% for example that would result in a top end Driver getting up to just under £16,000 year which isn't bad because atleast then the drivers have had a decent yearly pay rise.

Here is an example of how disgraceful that 4.5% is.

A month ago I applied for an apprenticeship with HMRC and I was going to be paid a monthly some of £1,600 pounds with bonuses on top of that, the position was for Business Admin. which would have resulted if I was successful in getting £19,600 per year with bonuses on top of that. which for an apprenticeship is way above the average.

Now if you were to do a normal standard Business Admin Apprenticeship and you'd applied through Connexions you get between £75 and £180 per week. which between £300 and £640 per month. Yearly that would be between £3,600 and £7,680 per year.

When you look at like that your jaw will drop and you'll think yeah Bus Drivers should definitely get more than 4.5% wage rise per year based on those figures I've just displayed, quite shocking if i'm honest, maybe I should send this to GNE and they'll realise how badly there drivers are being paid currently.

"Apologies if I waffled on a bit, merely giving my point of view on the comments made on the GNE Facebook Page"