Sunday, 14 September 2025
Territory Bus Drivers to Commence Taking Protected Industrial Action from Monday
Territory bus drivers working for bus operator CDC will commence taking protected industrial action from Monday.
The decision comes after months of negotiations with the company for a new enterprise agreement. Negotiations have failed to provide an acceptable position on bringing working conditions into line with standards across the bus industry, particularly given the demanding and increasingly dangerous job drivers perform.
As part of the action, TWU members will initially display posters in buses explaining their campaign to raise industry standards to the traveling public. Over the coming weeks drivers will also wear and display campaign branded high visibility vests on board buses.
An overwhelming 97% of TWU members working at CDC who voted in a protected action ballot, which closed on earlier this month, supported the right to take protected industrial action if CDC did improve their current position.
With their current enterprise agreement having nominally expired in June 2025, TWU members have made it clear to CDC, the operator contracted by the Northern Territory Government to deliver bus services, that they need to come back to the negotiating table with a fair offer that would bring conditions into line with industry standards, including loadings when driving on weekends and when working overtime.
The TWU has not ruled out escalating industrial action, including stoppages, if negotiations do not lead to an improved offer.
Bus drivers working for CDC in Victoria are currently taking protected industrial action.
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TWU SA/NT Branch Secretary Sam McIntosh:
“Every day our members carry out the vital job of transporting Territorians, including many of the most vulnerable members of our community, around our cities and suburbs. Our drivers are fighting for a better, fairer and safer network and deserve the same terms and conditions that exist across the wider industry.
We’ve seen over many years just how difficult and frankly unacceptably dangerous this job is. In the past year we’ve had a member kicked in the head whilst driving a bus, a passenger stabbed with scissors, an attempted stabbing of a bus driver and just a few weeks ago a rock was thrown through a bus window injuring a child. Buses are workplaces and every day our drivers do a terrific job while working under difficult and dangerous.
We’re looking forward to starting a conversation with our community about our campaign for urgent change. Taking industrial action is always a last resort, and we’re disappointed that it has come to this, but our members had no choice but to make a powerful statement that enough is enough. We deserve industry standards and to be safe at work.”
For more information:
Gavin de Almeida
Communications Officer
Transport Workers' Union SA/NT Branch
0456 982 270
