Delaney Myers: Bus and Coach Association CEO on why Kiwi bus drivers who moved to Sydney are walking away

There's concerns Kiwi bus drivers lured to Sydney for better opportunities are regretting the move. 

The job has a high turnover, with nine out of ten new drivers leaving within six months.

It's being blamed on onerous contracts and stressful working conditions.

Bus and Coach Association CEO Delaney Myers says Kiwi drivers are attractive to operators because they don't need visas to work, so employing them is cost-effective.

"It is a beautiful, liveable city - the sand might be whiter, but the grass might not be greener. It's a city with big city problems and social problems, that drivers are dealing with every day."

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever do for z Ellens eighteen past five. Now, apparently
some Kiwi bus drivers recruited to work in Australia are
regretting the move. Apparently the contracts are onerous, the work
is stressful, and the New South Wales government says nine
out of ten new drivers leave the industry within six months.
Delaney Meyer is the CEO of the Bus and Coach Association.
Hey Delaney, a.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Good evening, hither are you hearing this? I am hearing this?
People come here, isn't it?

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Yeah, yeah, Look, I mean the Kiwi drivers are in
a tach attractive target for recruitment from over in Sydney,
because you know, any New Zealand resident can work in Australia.
So if you can recruit a pre train driver, paying
a sign on bonus and some airfares is a pretty
costiqui of way to go.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Now, what is going on with the contracts? Do we
run contracts like this? Apparently over there, if you quit
within six months you got to pay ten thousand dollars
back to the company. If you quit within a year
you have to pay five thousand dollars back.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yeah, it does sound a bit tough, doesn't it. And Look,
I think it's that we don't sort of dive too
much into you know, what's reported to be sitting in
different contracts, and different employers will have different things sitting
within contracts. But certainly it's a pretty unfortunate situation these
drivers have found themselves in.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Does your answer makes me suspicious that we're doing this
in New Zealand too?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
Are we actually Either I couldn't tell you if we
were doing that or not. I haven't looked at the contracts.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
One of the guys who quit over there said it
was really stressful, like the job was more stressful there
than here. Why would that be?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah, yeah, Look, you know, if you look at Sydney,
I mean it is a beautiful Liverpool city, but there's
a lot of keys across multiple industries of finding out.
You know, the sand might be whiter, but the grass
might not be greener, and you know, it's a city
with big city problems and social problems that drivers are
dealing with every day. And as you've noticed, you know,

(01:50):
the New South Wales government figures say that nine out
of ten new drivers are leaving the industry within six months,
So clearly there's some pret significant on the job problems.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Yeah, Delaney, thank you very much as good to talk
to you mate. This de Laney Meyer's Bus and Coach
Association CEO. For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio