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Source: ONE News -
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Auckland buses will be back on the road on Thursday after union's strike notice and the employer's lockout were suspended.
NZ Bus locked out about 900 drivers and cleaners last Thursday after unions representing staff voted to work strictly to rule.
More than 80,000 Auckland commuters have been forced to find alternative transportation because of the lock out.
Bus workers met at Alexandra Park on Wednesday to discuss a recommendation made by the Employment Relations Authority to resolve the five-month-long pay dispute.
They rejected the recommendation, which aimed to get the groups back to the negotiating table.
But the Auckland Combined Unions said they would suspend their work to rule notice provided the company agreed to urgent high level negotiations to resolve the dispute.
Both parties have agreed to return to facilitation led by the ERA on Thursday.
NZ Bus on Wednesday offered to lift the lockout notice and resume all normal services from 4:00am Thursday on the proviso that the unions also lifted their strike notice.
"This afternoon the Unions have contacted us and as a result both parties have mutually suspended industrial action so that buses can be back on the road from tomorrow," says Zane Fulljames, NZ Bus GM Operations.
NZ Bus says it will honour the ERA's recommendation, which has been kept private to the parties in the dispute.
"We have always maintained that facilitation, rather than industrial action, was the responsible way to resolve the situation and we stand by that," says Fulljames.
"Moving forward, it is positive that both parties have agreed to return to facilitation led by the Employment Relations Authority tomorrow."
The four unions that make up the Auckland Combined Unions represent the approximately 900 bus drivers and cleaners who work for Metrolink, North Star, Go West, Waka Pacific, LINK and City Circuit bus services.
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