Highland bus services to ‘grind to a halt’ after hundreds of Stagecoach drivers in Inverness, Ross-shire, Sutherland, Caithness, Skye and Orkney vote to strike
Bus services in the Highlands look set to grind to a halt after 200 drivers voted for strike action in a row over pay.
The union Unite has warned that any industrial action will affect Stagecoach drivers based at depots at Inverness, Aviemore, Tain, Thurso, Skye and Orkney and bus services across a wide swathe of the north.
Unite has yet to announce dates for its planned strike, but said that around 200 of its members in the region will stop working unless Stagecoach comes back with a better pay deal and added that industrial action will come “in a matter of weeks” if it does not.
It said its members had “emphatically” rejected the “unacceptable” pay offer - which it said would leave drivers one of the poorest paid across Scotland despite the company “significantly increasing its profits over the last year”.
The rejected offer amounted to four per cent from July with a further 2.5 per cent increase from January 2025. The initial six months offer was then followed by a three per cent pay offer running from July 2025 for one year.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite’s Stagecoach bus drivers who provide a vital service across the Scottish Highlands and Islands deserve an improved pay offer. The company continues to increase its bank balance at the expense of our members, and this is not acceptable.”
“We will back our Stagecoach members all the way in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”
The union said that Highland Country Buses Limited, which is the name the local Stagecoach company is registered under, forms part of the wider Stagecoach Group. In its last accounts, the company recorded profits after tax amounting to £1.71 million in 2023 up from £448,000 in the previous year.
Marc Jackson, Unite industrial officer, said: “In a matter of weeks Stagecoach bus services across the Highlands, Skye and Orkney could come to a halt because of the company’s greed. This dispute could be resolved by a fair and reasonable pay offer to our members.”
“We would urge Stagecoach to see sense instead of continuing down a road which will lead to significant disruption for the travelling public.”
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