Bus disputes in south east England

There could be major disruption to bus services across the South East. Around 700 Unite members, including drivers, are being balloted for industrial action over pay.

The dispute covers Arriva workers in two companies across five depots in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, and Hertfordshire. These are in Luton and Milton Keynes, (Arriva the Shires) and Stevenage, Ware and Hemel Hempstead (Arriva Kent Thameside).

At the Shires, around 50 routes a day operate out of Milton Keynes and Luton while Kent Thameside operates 30 routes from Hemel Hempstead, Ware and Stevenage. Strikes will be quite disruptive in those areas if they go ahead.

Below inflation

Arriva have offered a below-inflation increase of 65p an hour, (equal to 3.82 per cent for drivers) backdated to 1 January 2025. The ballot closes on 4 September.

Strikes could begin in late September, a couple of weeks after the return to school. Members being balloted are predominantly drivers, but also include managerial and administrative staff, engineers, cleaners and shunters.

Profitable

Unite regional officer Jeff Hodge said, “Our members at Arriva work very hard – this is a skilled and stressful job – and should be rewarded for their efforts with a decent pay rise, especially when Arriva is such a profitable company.”

Arriva operates in eleven European countries, with total revenues of around €2.5 billion in the 7 months to December 2024, the majority from UK trains and buses. Originally based in Britain but owned by the German state railway company Deutsche Bahn since 2010, Arriva was sold to US private equity company I Squared Capital last year.