Arriva bus drivers in Kent announce 13 more strike days

There is to be more agony on the buses as services will be hit by strikes once again.

Arriva bus drivers have announced 13 more days of walk-outs which will affect services across Kent.

The industrial action is in support of a 12.3% pay demand.

Drivers have already walked out on two days in September, and on Thursday and Friday last week, after the 600 members of the Unite Union, based at Arriva depots in Northfleet, Gillingham, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, voted by 96.5% to take strike action.

The dates of the strikes will be three days from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, October 19 to 21; followed by five consecutive days from Monday to Friday, October 24 to 28; and five days consecutive days from Monday to Friday, November 7 to 11.

Unite's general secretary Sharon Graham said Arriva could avoid the disruption by meeting workers' demands, saying the company, which is ultimately owned by the German state-run company Deutsche Bahn, could afford it.

An Arriva spokesman said: "We have put forward a significant pay offer for our employees, which recognises the great work that they do and reflects the unprecedented cost-of-living challenge facing the region."

He said: "We recognise that the strikes will mean upheaval for our customers and communities through this ongoing industrial action in the region.

"We urge the union to ballot on our pay offer as soon as possible. "

Other bus companies are not affected.

Arriva would not disclose the size of the pay offer.

Unite's pay agreements with Arriva are conducted on a regional basis and drivers in other parts of the country have also been on strike.

But two areas have returned to work after accepting local offers. In London, drivers returned for an 11% rise and in the North West they went back for a 11.1% pay rise.