KMB boosts basic pay and work terms for drivers after Hong Kong bus crash casts spotlight on their welfare

Overtime pay for full-timers will also go up, with other bus companies considering following suit, as Transport Department prepares to revise guidelines for drivers’ working hours

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KMB has promised better basic salaries for all full-time drivers but the union says it’s not enough. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 7:15pm, 21 Feb 2018Updated: 11:32pm, 21 Feb 2018

Hong Kong’s largest franchised bus operator has agreed to drivers’ demands for better basic pay and working conditions following a double decker crash this month that left 19 passengers dead and put the spotlight on the need to improve safety.

From next month, full-time bus drivers with KMB will be guaranteed a higher basic monthly salary of HK$15,365 (US$1,963), regardless of performance, and more overtime pay, a drivers’ union announced on Wednesday after a meeting with management.

The company has been under intense pressure to address drivers’ grievances after one of its double deckers flipped on its side in Tai Po in the city’s worst road accident in nearly 15 years. In addition to the deaths, at least 67 people were injured.

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Union leaders blamed it on a lack of training for drivers and cost-cutting measures by KMB, reviving long-running concerns about an underpaid and overworked pool of 8,300 drivers. About 560 of them are part-timers, and eight out of 10 are above the age of 60, having been rehired after retirement.

Representatives of the Motor Transport Workers General Union’s KMB branch said most full-timers were already paid at least HK$15,365 a month, but HK$3,556 of that amount was bonus pay based on meeting safety and “good service” requirements, which put them under constant pressure.

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“The good service bonus covers a very wide scope of duties and hurdles. If you are deemed to be performing poorly three times, then your bonus will be deducted for that month,” unionist Lai Siu-chung said.