A colleague from my work advised myself that she was so upset that she was arriving to work late as bus routes were cancelled and he had to get later buses.
It appears that she asked the bus driver in her Seven Hills area why this had happened and he replied, "Busways had received 68 sick calls in the morning as drivers were taking a day off to celebrate 'Diwali'" an Indian tradition also celebrated in Australia.
this would have happened in NSW bus region 1 as the bus driver explained it has happened all the way to Penrith. Now, I do no and will not discriminate any one that believes in religion. Yet, I do have an issue when there is 68 bus drivers take sick leave and leave stranded bus commuters in Western Sydney. There wasn't a contingency plan put into place last Monday by Busways to cover those bus drivers with replacements.
Also, although we live in a multicultural society, how do we live in a multicultural society that we have don't have a wide spread of bus drivers from all different backgrounds around the world as well as born Australians.
I think that to consider further tendering of NSW Bus Region 1, the NSW Government needs to ensure that in future better contingencies are put into place and when or not there are 68 drivers on sick leave or more, there needs to coverage in every bus service, as time tabled.
In fact, Diwali or 'Deepavali' as it is known for is held on this Sunday 30th October , not last Sunday. It maybe because the Hindu Council of Australia was holding an event on 23rd October 2016 at Parramatta Park, and it seems all these drivers must have attended this venue, feeling sick next day....
This will need to be rectified for next years 'Diwali' or following years to come. I wonder if they emailed 68 sick leave certificates at 3am-4pm in the morning, before they were on roster?
Click here for Wikipedia details on Diwali
Click here for Hindu Council of Australia
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