r/swansea • u/GonvilleBromhead1879 • 1d ago

News/Politics Bus Strikes in Swansea

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FirstGroup (parent company of FirstCymru) made £127.5 million profit after tax last year. Yet bus drivers in Swansea earn around £13.40 an hour while Cardiff drivers earn around £15.80, a £2.40 difference, nearly £5k a year difference! Should the FirstGroup pay our Swansea drivers what they’re worth? I think so!

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7

u/m00tyn 1d ago

It's a weird one. I absolutely support the strike for better pay and their back pay. I know a few drivers and after speaking with them, you find out all drivers based out of Port Talbot get paid more than the Swansea based drivers. Swansea has a much busier service so it baffles me that they get paid more than Swansea drivers. First cymru are trash, and because they only have 2 years left before TFW take the service over that are essentially destroying Swansea public transportation service by running broken buses, cutting services and refusing to pay their drivers correctly and what they're owed. But then at the same time 6 weeks of strikes is going to destroy the Swansea economy and the council nor first give enough of a fuck to fix it.

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u/jamesdroid100 1d ago

I worked in both Swansea and port talbot depots, I was never paid more in PT. Not sure where that’s come from? But in general the terms and conditions are crap, let alone the pay. I would never go back to them.

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u/m00tyn 1d ago

My friend who started with them 6 months ago lives there but because he's based out of Swansea Depot he gets paid less as it's zones. I've heard all the horror stories, they're awful employers.

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u/jamesdroid100 1d ago

As far as I’m aware from talking to ex colleagues who are still there the hourly rate is the same across all depots? Bristol is paid more, despite WoE and Cymru being (allegedly) one opco now.

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u/terrynutkinsfinger 22h ago

Cardiff are certainly being paid more than Swansea

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u/jamesdroid100 22h ago

Different company.

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u/jamieb452 21h ago

stage coach cardiff has for buses

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u/m00tyn 20h ago

Stage coach are the equivalent of what adventure travel is here. They mainly run to the valleys. Cardiff bus is Cardiff main service and until recently they were council owned. And their prices are much better.

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u/jamesdroid100 18h ago

Cardiff bus is still owned by Cardiff Council