Dispute halts Sutton
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• The launch of the new arms-length division of London Buses, Suttonbus, has been postponed in a last minute decision, due to a dispute over working hours.
Last week London Buses put forward revised working conditions to the 200 staff at Sutton Bus Garage.
According to London bus officer Peter Gibson of the Transport and General Workers Union, this included proposals to add an extra two-anda-half hours onto the average working week. The package was put to a ballot and the proposals were rejected by two thirds of the staff.
London Regional Transport, which first put the routes out to tender, has now decided to postpone the introduction of Suttonbus until the dispute has been resolved.
It says: "This decision seems preferable to going ahead immediately, with the risk that the new arrangements would not by fully operated."
The changes to route 213 (Kingston to Croydon) will still go ahead as will changes to London Country (South West) routes 420 and 422.
London Regional Transport, however, has warned: If London Buses canot resolve the problems at Sutton, we might have to consider retendering the service or look at the ori ginal offers received when the route first went out for contract."
According to the TGWU, bus workers at Walthamstow bus garage also rejected a package of proposals which included longer hours, put forward by London Buses last week.