BUS drivers shipped in from across Yorkshire to help First manage its York staffing crisis are being paid £25 a day in travel expenses, the Evening Press has learned.

The payments mean that drivers who travel into the city to run routes six days a week are receiving at least £150 a week more than their York counterparts.

The drivers were brought in after the company was unable to cope with a rising shortfall of recruits to run its flagship Metro and Park&Ride services.

The out-of-town drivers are already receiving a higher basic pay package than York depot drivers.

Today the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU), which represents First's York drivers in pay talks, called on bosses to pay city staff a decent wage.

Peter Edwards, commercial manager at First, said drivers had been recruited from all over Yorkshire including Doncaster, Sheffield, Rotherham and Halifax to ensure that services ran to timetable. He said they would be here until just after Christmas, by which time the company expected to have enough drivers in the city.

He said the drivers were working six-day shifts and were free to travel to York by "whatever means they choose".

Several York drivers have complained to the Evening Press about the pay arrangements. One, who asked not to be named, said: "A lot of the drivers are very unhappy about this. But what can we do about it? "They also get paid regardless of whether they are driving or not. We only get paid for the time that we are in the cab."

Mr Edwards said: "Obviously we are required to meet our operational commitments. We have had to rely on drivers that have been brought in from other places. These drivers are not going to expend the additional time it takes to get to and from work out of their own expenses. We are giving them a £25 per day travelling allowance to get them from wherever they are to here, by whatever means they choose."

A TGWU spokesman said: "If they (First) can afford this then they can afford to pay our lads. If they had, then they would not be as short of drivers. First should reconsider its wage negotiations and pay York drivers a living wage."

Updated: 11:52 Thursday, November 21, 2002