Bus passengers in the Highlands facing disruption as vote looms over pay dispute

Around 120 Unite members of bus company Stagecoach 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 open on Thursday and closes on 24 October. If 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.”  

The strike ballot comes as the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal said no further action will be taken against Dame Ann Gloag, the co-founder of Stagecoach, who was charged with human trafficking offences.

Dame Ann, who was charged alongside three others by Police Scotland for alleged human trafficking and immigration offences, has strongly denied the charges since the beginning and, on Wednesday, COPFS said it would make no further proceedings against her or the three others – two men and a woman.

She co-founded the Stagecoach bus company in 1980, with her brother Sir Brian Souter, and was made a dame for her business and charity work.

The company is the UK’s biggest bus and coach operator, and is now managed by DWS Infrastructure.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach Highlands said: "We are aware of Unite's ballot on strike action in the Highlands, and we are still in ongoing discussions with the union. We remain committed to reaching a fair deal for our team across the region and value the contribution of all our people."