Union Unite has issued a strongly-worded statement after a number of rows between staff and management at Go North East, which has depots in Tyneside, Northumberland and County Durham

More than 1,000 workers at public transport firm Go North East could be balloted on strike action after a row with the firm over safety and treatment of staff.

Unite the Union say drivers and engineers at depots in Tyneside, Northumberland and County Durham have been threatened with dismissal, suspended and sent home from work when health and safety issues are raised.

Safety issues, including CCTV now working on the top floor of double decker buses, have been raised by staff and the union says that members of staff who had raised health and safety concerns were sent home from work with some of them given final written warnings. Unions also allege that the company’s higher standard buses are being sent to the North West, where its parent group Go Ahead has recently won a major contract.

The threat of a strike will concern commuters after a strike on Go North East buses in 2023 caused huge disruption and damage to the regional economy.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Go North East has a track record of appalling management practices but it has plumbed new depths with this latest reign of terror that has seen workers, including union reps, forced to sign paperwork under threats of dismissal. We have members who have been threatened with dismissal or forced to resign due to such Dickensian working practices and despite attempts by our reps and officers to find a way forward, such a vindictive approach to the workforce has left little choice but to consult with our membership on next steps.”

The 2023 industrial action on Go North East cost the region an estimated £10m as people were unable to get to work, school and college, and medical appointments. Drivers, engineers and other staff at Go North East staged seven weeks of strike action from late September, including a continuous five-week walkout, before a deal was struck in a pay dispute.

A Go North East spokesperson said: “Go North East is committed to ensuring the highest safety standards at all times. Recently, we introduced safety briefings for drivers to reinforce best practices, for example to ensure that double deck buses are not driven on routes with low bridges in case it leads to bridge strikes. Safety standards of this nature are essential for protecting our passengers.

“Over 99% of drivers supported this but a very small number of drivers (seven out of 1300) initially declined to sign up to the safety standards or provide assurances that they would adhere to these safe ways of working. In accordance with our established procedures, these drivers were temporarily suspended. However, the issue was resolved, and the suspensions lifted.”

Go North East is one of the region’s main public transport operators, with the company saying that around 175,000 journeys are made on its buses each day.

Staff threatened with dismissal on spurious grounds. Safety of drivers and passengers in danger.

Out-of-control management at a bus company in the North East of England has forced over 1,000 workers to be consulted on next steps, including the possibility of strike action, the Unite union announced today.

Drivers and engineers at Go North East, based in depots across Tyneside, Northumberland and County Durham, have been forced to the brink by a dangerous management culture that has seen drivers threatened with dismissal, suspended and sent home from work when health and safety issues are raised.

Workers have been forced to resign, and management has imposed what one worker described as a “dictatorship” with “my way or the highway” style practices. Go North East has created a culture of fear to discourage members raising genuine safety concerns on behalf of passengers and drivers.

Such behaviours are widely seen by union members as retribution by management after workers won a well-deserved pay rise after a bitter industrial battle in 2023.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Go North East has a track record of appalling management practices but it has plumbed new depths with this latest reign of terror that has seen workers, including union reps, forced to sign paperwork under threats of dismissal.

“We have members who have been threatened with dismissal or forced to resign due to such Dickensian working practices and despite attempts by our reps and officers to find a way forward, such a vindictive approach to the workforce has left little choice but to consult with our membership on next steps.”

Last month, seven members of staff who had raised concerns over health and safety procedures were sent home from work and six were then given final written warnings. Two felt under such pressure that they had no choice but to resign. Two were union reps and were instantly “de-recognised” from their elected workplace roles.

Upon returning to work this week, one raised additional concerns over passenger safety after CCTV on his double decker bus was discovered to not be working. After returning to the depot and asking for a replacement vehicle he was sent home and now faces possible dismissal.

Workers are now being consulted and surveyed over all the ongoing issues at the depots. Potential strike action would see bus services in the area grounded for the second time in as many years. Go North East is already struggling to maintain services due to a shortage of engineers and because higher-standard buses are being sent to the Go North West sister-company who recently won a franchise in Manchester.

Unite regional officer Dave Telford added: “Once again, communities are being betrayed by Go North East. Our members live and work in this area and the working conditions they now face are so unreasonable they are considering strike action. Passengers are being put in danger by this approach to safety.

“Deciding to de-recognise our reps is an act of absurd cowardice. Imagine if unions refused to deal with managers who they didn’t like.

“This is a dispute of Go North East’s own making, in petty revenge for the workers getting a decent pay deal. And it will have to answer to the pensioners, the parents and the business owners who will be let down when the buses stop running.”

(17 Feb 2025, 3:41 pm)Adrian wrote Seeing as this now appears to have well and truly developed legs, I've created a new thread to discuss the ongoing potential of Industrial Action at Go North East. 

Chronicle Report: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/go-north-east-buses-facing-31022860

Go North East buses facing strike vote in row on safety and treatment of staff

Who writes these comments for the company? "Recently, we introduced safety briefings for drivers to reinforce best practices, for example to ensure that double deck buses are not driven on routes with low bridges in case it leads to bridge strikes" - I'd say it's little more than best practice to avoid hitting a bridge!

(17 Feb 2025, 4:39 pm)BusLoverMum wrote In other safety briefings, drivers were told not to crash their bus or drive off cliffs. A session on looking out for falling anvils is in the pipeline.

(17 Feb 2025, 3:41 pm)Adrian wrote Seeing as this now appears to have well and truly developed legs, I've created a new thread to discuss the ongoing potential of Industrial Action at Go North East. 

Chronicle Report: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/go-north-east-buses-facing-31022860

Go North East buses facing strike vote in row on safety and treatment of staff

Who writes these comments for the company? "Recently, we introduced safety briefings for drivers to reinforce best practices, for example to ensure that double deck buses are not driven on routes with low bridges in case it leads to bridge strikes" - I'd say it's little more than best practice to avoid hitting a bridge!

(17 Feb 2025, 6:07 pm)DeltaMan wrote I've been on a GNE double decker bus where the driver blatantly ignored the in-cab warnings of a low bridge and was literally one left turn from hitting a bridge. Maybe something like that

(17 Feb 2025, 6:26 pm)F114TML wrote Was it following the bus route or off route?

Ours often goes off for bridges on side streets you'd never get a bus down anyway, or low bridges on route that you can fit under (such as the Wearmouth and Tyne bridges), so it's little surprise drivers just end up blanking it out.

(17 Feb 2025, 6:17 pm)omnicity4659 wrote Bridge strike comments by the company are a distraction - unrelated to the issues being discussed by the unions and members. 

Focus on what the company are trying to avoid.

(17 Feb 2025, 3:41 pm)Adrian wrote Seeing as this now appears to have well and truly developed legs, I've created a new thread to discuss the ongoing potential of Industrial Action at Go North East. 

Chronicle Report: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/go-north-east-buses-facing-31022860

Go North East buses facing strike vote in row on safety and treatment of staff

(17 Feb 2025, 6:28 pm)DeltaMan wrote Off route

(17 Feb 2025, 9:47 pm)PH - BQA wrote I began to read the news articles on this as I made my journey home tonight, and the more I took in the more I found myself staggered that Go North East have fallen to this point. 

I sat on a relatively new, pleasant, Stagecoach Enviro 400 MMC in Eldon Square as I opened the BBC News article, while parked two stands along was Go North East's 6970. A bus which is unable to serve disabled passengers in bus stations. A bus which, at nearly 17 years of age, is working on the flagship route of the company which regularly boasts iitself as being the largest bus operator in the region. A bus which has the interior ambience of a ghetto. A bus which perfectly encapsulates the current mentality of the company, and those running it. 

Nigel Featham does not care for the front line employees of any company he has presided over. He does not care for the public who pay his rather hefty wage. He is a mercenary, with no interest other than lining the pockets of himself and those who facilitate his games. 

The more that this mess continues, however, it is also clear that those at GAG who have the power to fix the poisonous culture, which has grown inside GNE like an aggressive tumour, have no intention of doing so. The threat of a second strike in less than two years looms, and the management team responsible are all still in place. No lessons have been learnt. The specific issue here seems to stem from two key areas, staff morale and fleet age. Staff morale will take a large amount of time to repair, and it is evidently incredibly low at present. Fleet age is equally ominous, there has been no new vehicle purchased for 5 years outside of the 9 purchased with public money and there is no sign that this is about to change. 

There is no plan here, only mismanaged decline.

(18 Feb 2025, 7:05 am)L469 YVK wrote I think the only way GNE will get sorted, is if NECA purchsed the entire GNE operation and ran it as an arms length company until franchising.

(18 Feb 2025, 8:59 am)BusLoverMum wrote Reading some of this stuff, if anyone was injured there would be strong grounds for a claim for criminal negligence and my money would be on management shifting the blame to the driver for ignoring the red warning light/ smoke coming from the engine bay /faulty wing mirror or whatever.

Do VOSA do spot inspections of passenger carrying fleets?

(17 Feb 2025, 5:56 pm)idiot wrote Pleased I drive now and only rely on the bus when I want a beer.

It was because of the last strike (although I passed my test a number of years ago) I purchased a car. Before this Covid I had a van but literally used it for my business and not commuting.

(18 Feb 2025, 7:11 am)MurdnunoC wrote Wow!

If there was a like button I'd hit it.

I think this is first post you've composed which doesn't mention the Coast Road; suggests numerous changes to timings or routes of bus services (including introducing new ones); or reallocates buses from one depot (usually Consett) to another claiming that it would somehow increase reliability. 

I'm impressed. Keep it up!!

(18 Feb 2025, 12:10 pm)L469 YVK wrote I still standby my opinion on the E400MMC allocations but that's kinda another debate 

If the CMA didn't allow NECA to run the existing operations fully as an arms length company, could they not take a 49% stake with maybe another bus operator (i.e Metroline) taking the other 51%?

Bus drivers who raised concerns over safety said they resigned because "they felt they had no choice" and were "worried" for the welfare of passengers.

Angela Bradford and John Hamflett, who worked for Go North East (GNE) at its depot in Consett, County Durham, stepped down after they were suspended for delaying signing a safety declaration letter.

Unite the Union said it was consulting with 1,300 drivers and staff over potential industrial action following the suspension of Ms Bradford, Mr Hamflett and several others.

GNE said it was "committed to ensuring the highest safety standards at all times" and suspensions were "in accordance with our established procedures".

Ms Bradford and Mr Hamflett were among six workers to be suspended, and receive a final written warning, because they did not sign a safety declaration letter.

The letter, which has been seen by the BBC, asked workers to confirm they knew the safety procedure when a red warning light, which indicates a serious fault, appeared on the dashboard of a bus.

However, workers claimed this procedure was often ignored by managers with drivers often asked to continue driving.

A woman with white hair, and wearing black-rimmed glasses, and a grey jacket over a floral shirt.
Image caption,
Angela Bradford said she "loved her job" and thought she would be there until retirement

Ms Bradford, who joined the firm 32 years ago, said: "If I was driving down the road and a red light came on, I would contact control and they say 'yeah we know about it, just continue'.

"But say 10 minutes down the line my brakes failed, and [the bus] hit something or killed somebody, I've signed this document to say I wouldn't drive with a red light.

"I was very worried, worried for myself and my passengers.

"I was hoping to be in a job until I retire, I've lost that now."

'Red lights taped up'
Mr Hamflett claimed he had asked to clarify the details of the letter with union officials, but "wasn't given that opportunity" by managers and sent home, before being suspended.

He said: "We've got incidents where these red lights are being taped up so it doesn't show up on the dashboard, and we have to carry on not knowing if there's a fault.

"I never refused, I just wanted a bit of clarity and I honestly feel like I've done nothing wrong but feel like I've had to resign because of that."

He added the suspension had taken a "toll" on his mental health, and now worried for the future, but said he felt he "couldn't go back".

A bald man wearing a light blue shirt, and a dark blue jacket, stands in front of green fencing outside a depot.
Image caption,
Dave Telford said the union was consulting its members of industrial action

Dave Telford, regional officer at Unite, said the union was consulting drivers on strike action.

"We're back here because of the belligerent attitude of Go North East management, and the way they've handled some safety briefings which were rolled out to staff, the threats of suspension and disciplinary action if they didn't sign to accept those safety briefings."

"They had genuine concerns, and that's been borne out since... [as] the control room have been telling drivers to continue drivng with red warning lights.

"[GNE] need to get round the table with Unite and move forward constructively, so we can prevent this from happening again and resolve the issues that they've created."

'Essential' document
Nigel Featham, managing director at Go North East, said the safety declarations had been introduced to "reinforce best practices".

He said: "For example, to ensure that double deck buses are not driven on routes with low bridges in case it leads to bridge strikes.

"Safety standards of this nature are essential for protecting our passengers."

Mr Featham said only seven out of 1,300 drivers had declined to sign the safety letter and they had been temporarily suspended "in accordance with our established procedures".

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"If I was driving down the road and a red light came on, I would contact control and they say 'yeah we know about it, just continue”

(18 Feb 2025, 5:48 pm)BusLoverMum wrote I’m guessing this contact would be verbal, as well a not recorded and kept.It would be a shame for GNE if this had happened by some written means that could be used as evidence.