(14 Sep 2021, 11:22 am)Storx wrote Jesus blaming the unions, the staff are underpaid. The 3.2% once you account for the NI increase and inflation won't be an increase at all and that's ignoring the inflation for last year aswell when a year was skipped.
It's baffling the love for corporates in suits on here at times who don't care about anyone bar the dividend they can get at the end of year which is kept by keeping staff wages as low as they can, even if they're below the living wage.
The third option is have a happy work force who are happy to work for you with an increased wage and actually stay in their job thus less training needed since you don't have a massive turnover. At the same time you have happy drivers who provide customer service beyond what they need to, offering the right tickets, saying hello when passengers board buses and going beyond their working hours doing overtime because their proud of their job all resulting in a better passenger experience. Similar could be said behind the scenes with staff who go beyond what they need to, go that extra step in cleaning and fixing buses which all is a better experience. It's better than the current grumpy drivers who want out, buses which normal times are absolutely manky and I can't comment on the engineering staff but there's a lot of breakdowns (but don't want to blame that on them).
It's the reality of the current situation and the public attitude, nobody wants to pay more than they do now.
The Living Wage outside of London is currently £9.50 which GNE pay above. Average Pay in manual and entry level office jobs is around the £10 level in this region, slightly less in some retail environments. Very few people have had pay rises, those that do won't have had anything inflation busting. Doesn't mean it's right but its the reality.
The public have already indirectly kept the industry and these jobs going through furlough and support grants on top of fares - there's absolutely no appetite to support more, so yes, unions should be more realistic. Allow the economy to recover now - reap the benefits following that.