HSR Service struggles as drivers call in sick

The HSR bus service is struggling with its drivers calling in sick, causing bus routes to be cancelled, and customers being left out in the cold. HSR officials are blaming absenteeism, while the drivers union is claiming “incompetent managers” and lack of drivers is the problem.

18% of roughly 450 HSR bus drivers called in sick in October leading to close to 1400 hours of lost bus service.

“Its affecting our constituents. I’m getting calls from people who are getting docked pay because the bus didn’t show up.” said Ward 8 Councillor Terry Whitehead.

“We’re trying not to do two busses in a row, avoid the heavier routes. There’s still lots of people being adversely affected by this. It’s unacceptable.” said Public Works manager Dan McKinnon.

One of the solutions HSR has come up with is to have drivers work up to 68 hours a week.

“I’d call it a stop gap measure, to help us deal with this in the short term. We don’t want to have to rely on people driving 68 hours a week. That’s not reasonable.” said McKinnon.

“Sixty-eight hours equates to almost 10 hours a day to a seven day work week. Tthat concerns me because fatigue is an issue when delivering passengers safely.” said Whitehead.

The president of the Bus Drivers Union penned an open letter today blaming a drivers shortage instead of sick days, saying “yet, if every single operator who is off sick, on vacation, on WSIB, or on emergency leave were to show up and work 40 to 50 hours per week, HSR still wouldn’t have enough staff to fill all the work on the schedule. ”

Erik Tuck added his own solution to the problem, and he didn’t pull any punches.

“Thus, the best first step toward our goal is for the city of Hamilton to remove this incompetent management team, starting with the director.”

The city has hired 37 new drivers this year. Fourteen will begin training next week, and should be ready by Christmas. The problem is 22 drivers have also retired or quit this year.