Around 120 Unite members based in Inverness reject unacceptable pay offer.
Unite the union can confirm that Stagecoach bus drivers across the Highlands are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay.
Around 120 Unite members will take part in the industrial action ballot following an empathetic 94.6 per cent rejection of a pay offer made by Stagecoach Highlands which is based in Inverness.
The offer amounted to a four per cent increase from July with a further 2.5 per cent increase from January 2025.
This was then followed by a three per cent pay offer running from July 2025 for one year.
The ballot will opened 10 October and closes on 24 October.
If the ballot is successful then strike action could take place from early November bringing bus services around the Inverness area to a halt.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“Stagecoach in the Scottish Highlands is guilty of stockpiling money while making a pay offer that simply doesn’t reflect our members’ hard work.
“We will back our Stagecoach members all the way in their fight for better jobs, pay and conditions.”
Highland Country Buses Limited which is the name the company is registered under forms part of the wider Stagecoach Group.
In its last accounts, the company recorded profits after tax amounting to £1.71m in 2023 up from £448,000 in the previous year.
Marc Jackson, Unite industrial officer, said:
“Unite’s bus drivers across Inverness and the Highlands deserve fair pay.
“This is a profitable company that is fully able to make a fair pay offer.
“If company doesn’t move then strike action involving our drivers is on the horizon.
“Stagecoach will be entirely responsible for this situation because it has the ways and means to prevent it.”
