April 1 target for Citybus Ltd
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• The agreed target date for the merger between Belfast Corporation bus services and Ulsterbus is April 1 next, said Mr Peter Mills, Under-Secretary for Northern Ireland, in the Commons last week.
Negotiations between all the interested parties, including the managements and the trade unions, were continuing.
Mr James Molyneaux (Ulster Unionist, South Antrim) told him that while such a merger would probably lead to greater efficiency in operation, it was important to ensure that the amalgamation did not lead to undue redundancies, particularly as all transports workers in Northern Ireland had been operating under great strain for a number of years.
Mr Mills agreed with him, and said that negotiations were going on at that moment between the management of the proposed new merged company Citybus Ltd, and the trade unions. These negotiations covered vital staffing matters, including wages and conditions and the numbers to be employed by the merged undertaking.
Mr Kevin McNamara (Labour, Hull North) claimed that there were 450 threatened redundancies as a result of the merger.
Bearing in mind the unemployment situation in Northern Ireland and the particularly difficult task of people who had been involved in supplying transport services in the Six Counties over the past three years, these men needed special consideration.
Mr Mills replied that the exact number of redundancies had not yet been ascertained. It was the intention to keep them to a minimum, and certainly all staff matters would be dealt with humanely and with the maximum consideration for the staff. All this was going on in close consultation with the Ministry of Development and the trade unions.