Arriva Wales Bus Drivers

Part of 3. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:09 pm on 17 November 2021.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Llyr Gruffydd Llyr Gruffydd Plaid Cymru 3:09, 17 November 2021

This is a wholly indefensible position from a major company running services with public subsidy—that's what we shouldn't forget. Arriva Buses Wales has enjoyed a near monopoly of services in parts of north Wales over the years, and receiving those subsidies, of course, from Welsh Government indirectly. So, I want to hear a stronger intent from Government in terms of some sort of intervention, because the grant is derived from the Government, so surely you're in a position to flex some muscle here, and, if you aren't, then surely tell us that that is your intention to bake those kinds of expectations in. You've spoken in the past about legislation around public procurement, for example. This is the kind of thing that we need to hardwire into future contracts. Now, the offer of 29p an hour as a pay rise compared to the 39p, of course, paid to counterparts in north-west England means that we do have a pay differential of £2.20 an hour, as we heard, for driving the same buses along many of the same roads, but, of course, those workers are all facing the same cost-of-living crisis, and they're key workers. It's easy to forget—our bus drivers are key workers. We've hailed their efforts as heroes during this pandemic; they deserve a better deal. But, of course, this underlines to me that it's time for a bigger shake-up of our bus services. We've been at the mercy of commercial bus companies for too many years. So, do you now agree, Minister, that this underlines the need to take the private profit motive out of public service delivery in Wales and to bring bus services back into public hands?