Supporting London's Bus Drivers

Elly Baker AM proposed, and Unmesh Desai AM seconded, the following motion:

“London’s buses are a vital service for Londoners, especially to those Londoners who rely on buses and have little to no other transport options.

This Assembly puts on record its support and thanks to London’s bus drivers who keep London moving daily, and through the most difficult circumstances. London bus drivers kept key workers moving at great risk to themselves, as we saw with 51 sadly losing their lives during the pandemic. During 7/7 it was the buses that were able to transport people away from danger while other modes of transport were down, despite a bus being involved in the terror attack. More recently, they carried on transporting essential workers during the extreme heat in July 2022.

This Assembly believes that this key group of workers deserves our support, especially during this cost of living crisis. Issues such as toilet and other facilities provision, low wages and fatigue affect bus drivers every day and need to be addressed.

Therefore this Assembly urges the Mayor of London to show his support for London’s bus drivers by respecting their human right to have appropriate toilet facilities at each end of every bus route and specifically calls upon the Mayor to commit to a concrete timeline to fix TfL's widespread and longstanding denial of toilet dignity to London's bus drivers. This Assembly further urges the Mayor to recognise the significant issue of driver fatigue and calls on him to introduce measures to address it.

This Assembly commits to working with London’s bus drivers and representatives to ensure the best possible working conditions and a good quality of service for Londoners and urges the Mayor, Transport for London (TfL) and bus operators to do so too. This Assembly also urges the new Prime Minister therefore to protect workers’ rights in order to ensure bus drivers continue to have excellent union representation.”

Following debate and upon being put to a vote, the motion was agreed unanimously.