(21 Sep 2023, 2:15 pm)Adrian wrote It can be tricky yeah, because even if you agreed through collective bargaining to do it now, there's always the possibility you'll win a big piece of work and then take new drivers in on TUPE terms. This, I suspect, will be more common in a world of franchising.
The problem that I see, is that people like NF always think that they're doing a great job, when the reality is that they probably have little clue what it's like on the ground. To be frank, a lot of customers are sick to the back teeth of bus operators at the minute. Yet very little of that is down to the actions or responsibility of the person behind the wheel, who usually takes the flack.
In London, I know they've all agreed a rule within the franchisee agreements that any TUPE employees are guaranteed their current rate for 6 months, which was approved with the unions, then drop down to their new employers terms after that.
There's big problems with a few Arriva London drivers as they're being told to TUPE to another operator, who pay less, so don't want to but if they stay with Arriva they lose all their employment status and work as effectively as a new driver since there's no work for them.
Assume it'd be similar up here under franchising.