Commuters can breathe a sigh of relief as bus services are expected to return to normal on Tuesday.

The industrial action left thousands of commuters stranded for nearly a month as bus drivers demanded a double digit wage increase.

On Monday, unions settled on a 9.5 percent hike, with an additional increase of 0.5 percent to be effective at the beginning of October.

Meanwhile, Golden Arrow Bus Services said it cannot guarantee that its services will operate smoothly on Tuesday as many bus drivers may not be aware that the nationwide industrial action was over.

Golden Arrow Bus Services’ John Dammert said, “We are glad that we are able to resume services. It caused an inconvenience to a number of people and we will attempt to resume normal schedule services.”

Bus drivers demanding a double digit wage increase began their strike almost four weeks ago which affected thousands of commuters.

Transport union Satawu’s Vincent Masoga urged drivers to return to their stations on Tuesday.

“The strike has been called off we have just issued a communication to all our provinces informing them that on the basis of the demands they have made, a settlement has been reached.”

After several deadlocked negotiations, the Transport and Omnibus Workers Union (Towu) said it was happy that an agreement has been reached.

GOLDEN ARROW EAGER FOR RESOLUTION

Golden Arrow had made a call to government to intervene and help parties find a resolution.

The Democratic Alliance’s Ian Ollis agreed with the move and said government has organisations at its disposal that could put an end to disputes between employers and their workers.

Over 200,000 Cape Town commuters were affected by the strike including students.

Satawu intensified their strike last week when they marched to the Johannesburg’s MEC of Transport, Ismail Vadi’s office in Simmonds street.

Cosatu supported Satawu as it believed their demands were justified, but called on the role players to quickly find a compromise in order to end the strike.

Source: eyewitnessnews – Greame Raubenheimer