(23 Jul 2021, 9:55 am)Adrian wrote Arriva Darlington hit by criticism over drivers' hours and pay

"A NORTH EAST bus company has been hit with criticism as concerns have been raised over hours and pay conditions at its depot in Darlington.
Arriva North East has been accused of "upping" weekly hours and changing driver rest days with "little" notice in a bid to make up for staff shortages due to Covid."

Full story: https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/1...hours-pay/

This one doesn't baffles me a little bit. There's a couple of points that seem a bit bizarre:

•  "One worker, who wishes to remain anonymous, said that drivers were only informed of a new emergency rota, effective from this Sunday, earlier this week on Monday." - Not being funny, but an emergency rota sort of implies that it needs to be implemented quickly. That's also still a weeks notice, not great, but given the current circumstances surely nothing to run to the papers over. 
  
• "The Northern Echo understands that drivers at its Faverdale depot have seen shifts lengthened beyond their usual contracted hours, and in some cases without staff knowing." - So, either a rota has been implemented with a weeks notice, or not. How exactly can shifts be lengthened without the workers knowing? I'm obviously not sure on the specifics of the contracts the drivers are on, but given they're limited by law to how much they can drive I don't imagine the shifts will be able to be lengthened too much. Additionally, unless there's a specific clause in the contract stating weekly hours must not exceed "x" then again I don't see a huge problem - and if that clause exists then the place to go is a law firm not the Northern Echo. 
  

I appreciate that short notice changes to work aren't great, I've dealt with them myself over the course of the pandemic, but some of these complaints don't quite add up. I don't think the Northern Echo has done a great job of articulating the complaints particularly well either, mind.