A SEVEN day bus strike that would have affected services across the North-East has been called off.

Eleventh hour talks between Arriva management and the Unite union led to the strike by bus drivers being suspended.

If it had gone ahead, Arriva routes and services around County Durham, Teesside and North Yorkshire would have been significantly affected, leading to huge disruption for bus users in the lead up to Christmas.

The crux of the dispute, according to Unite, is the belief that bus drivers working for Arriva Durham County Ltd were the second lowest paid of Arriva bus companies in the UK.

Drivers at depots across the region had voted to strike over the pay dispute, with subsequent negotiations between their union and Arriva management resulting in the industrial action now being called off.

Arriva tabled a number of concessions in their latest offer, including a “fairer system for back pay awards from March 2018, a 7.6% hourly pay increase over two years, reducing the time it takes drivers to hit the top rate of pay (from five years to three years), and the next pay review date confirmed as March 2020.”

Unite agreed to suspend the strike to allow the revised offer to be put to its members in a ballot.

Unite regional officer Bob Bolam said: “We have had three days of intensive talks with the management and have now reached a stage where a revised pay offer can be put to our members.
 
“We will not be discussing the details of the revised offer until our members have had an opportunity to consider and vote on it. We expect that to happen in the next few days.
 
“In the meantime, the strike action, due to have started  tomorrow has been suspended and our members are currently working normally.”

Arriva managing director for the region, Nigel Featham, said:“All parties have moved a long way to arrive at this position, in the interest of both our passengers and drivers. I sincerely hope that when the revised deal is put to a ballot our drivers agree to back it.”

Unite retains the option to reinstate strike plans in the New Year should drivers reject the latest pay offer.