Fine farce finished at Tempe

Drivers at Tempe depot had a big win recently when fines dealt out to a bus driver waiting in a STA marked vehicle to start this shift were revoked by the local council.

The trouble began when an over-eager ranger issued a parking fine to a driver in a State Transit staff car, clearly marked as METROBUS, specifically rostered to be used by that particular driver on that day, to carry out a relief of another driver at that location.

The driver had no option but to use the car for this purpose as the location was some distance from the depot.

Despite explaining the situation to the ranger – the driver was fined. Further, despite the driver having done nothing wrong the council refused to revoke the fine.

STA management also refused to intervene until a court notice was issued nine months later to the driver, Colin Campbell, who then turned to the RTBU for assistance.

It was not until the union intervened that finally STA took action to resolve the situation.

Frank Kocsis from the depot, who handled the situation while RTBU rep Ashish Sarker was on leave, said the situation was absolutely ridiculous.

“This driver was simply doing their job and got wacked with a fine. We should have seen intervention on behalf of STA management much earlier in this process.

“After we went to see Area Manager Mark Peters he promised to write a letter for Colin explaining the STA procedures of relief.

“The union, however, is glad that they finally saw the light and the matter is now resolved.”