The Woes of a School Bus Driver or Do You Want to Work For Less Than Nothing

Well it has been some time since I set up this Blog and due to so many things that have kept me busy I haven't had much time to write anything, but, now to rectify it. I want to start by writing about certain events in my life that are giving me cause for great concern, so here goes.

Up until 1996 I was working as an horticulturalist in the gardens of an historical house, but, due to local government reorganisation I was made redundant. After a holiday abroad I started wondering what to do and decided to get a license to drive coaches etc. as I noticed a free course. I obtained a license, but, with little experience with coaches and a lack of jobs I ended up driving mini buses from eight to 24 seaters. The job entailed mainly schools and social services contracts with disabled people which in itself was quite pleasant work knowing I was giving a service to people. The conditions of employment, though, leave much to be desired.

At one time these sort of contracts were performed by local government run bus services or drivers working directly for the social services so pay and conditions were governed by law and unions. Then privatisation came along and small firms were set up each one buying a few buses and applying for contracts. When I started working at it I was told that I would be self employed and have to pay my own tax and insurance etc., I was not quite earning £100 basic at the time in 1997 so had to work many hours at weekends to make up which being a bus driver often put me over the number of hours I could legally work per week and for a pittance at that. During school and bank holidays I, of course, earned nothing, but, the up side was that during summer school holidays I could go traveling and see parts of the world I'd never been to.

Things changed over the years, earnings never kept level with inflation, more competition became involved chasing the same number of contracts, more layers of bureaucracy were instigated with little protection for the worker, weekend work became unbearable due to increased problems with drunken passengers abusing the driver... I could go on, but, nothing compares to the total lack of employment rights of the drivers in this sort of set up.

This year, however, has probably been the worse in my life as far as work is concerned. Since Christmas I have been battling to get paid by my employer on top of which I'm paying out between £80 to £100 per week in fuel expenses. After 18 weeks I finally managed to get some money, £900 toward fuel expenses and £1000 toward pay...work it out for yourself, but, suffice to say my bos thinks I can get by on around £50 per week. It is now only a short time to the end of the college year, my bos is not making any effort to pay me and due to lack of funds it looks as if I will be missing out on a holiday this year as I can't book a flight etc. without knowing if I'll get paid and expenses reimbursed.

Meanwhile, I see my bos buying himself and his parents very expensive toys. He has also now opened up a new firm which is mainly taxis and I have a growing suspicion that he is going to do a dirty on me by offering no work when schools/colleges go back and not bothering to pay me and reimburse expenses. So, what can I do? Absolutely nothing, if it came to court he could deny everything and there would be no proof as to what he owes me, I stand to loose around £3,500 if not more and end up with no job.

I am not alone in this, it can and does happen often to people in this sort of work. Get another job? At 56 that is easier said than done. It strikes me that in the days of slavery the slave was often treated better than this as the slave owner had a vested interest in the well being of his slave as he then got the best work out of him. Slavery seems alive and well these days or should I call it callousness?

So, if anyone has an offer of a job to a good, honest driver who can work well and dependably by himself or with others based in the South Wales area please drop me a mail or post here with a way of contacting you (the former is probably safer).

Incidentally, I won't be naming and shaming the above firm here as situations may resolve themselves. However, if the worse comes to the worse I may end up dropping very big clues to who the firm is.