Bus drivers have accepted a pay deal with bosses of Eastern National.

Members of the Transport and General Workers' Union voted by two to one to accept a pay deal spread over two years.

The threat of disruption to bus services in Essex was averted after 244 members voted to accept the deal. A total of 120 rejected the offer.

The new 1999 pay deal is over two years and sees payments of 4.2 per cent back pay made from April to this November and a new hourly rate will start immediately. Drivers will get a 5.3 per cent rise later.

The original offer from Eastern National was an increase of 4.2 per cent on all rates of pay and a five per cent increase, which included a package of productivity measures. Both were rejected by the union.

Bus drivers walked out on October 23 after union members rejected an increase of 5.3 per cent on basic rates of pay.

A revised package, which included an increase of 2.5 per cent in the third year of the deal, was rejected and drivers went on strike again on November 5.

Bill Lumb, of the TGWU, said today: "It's been a long haul and one of the longest disputes I've been involved with.

"The atmosphere is a lot more buoyant now and we will move into the millennium with better industrial relations."

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