Passengers warned there will be no Arriva Yorkshire buses from Monday due to driver strike

Unite the Union said workers in depots across the region will take industrial action from Monday, June 6, to protest against the company's “pitiful offer of a 4.1 per cent pay increase”.

Arriva Yorkshire said no services will be operating within the Yorkshire region and it is not yet clear how long the strike will last.

Around 96 per cent of Unite the Union members have voted to strike and the union claims many are struggling to make ends meet during the cost of living crisis.

It said newly recruited bus drivers are paid only £9.78 an hour – just 28 pence above the minimum wage.

Regional officer Phil Bown said: “Strike action will inevitably cause significant disruption and delays for the Yorkshire travelling public but this dispute is entirely of Arriva’s own making.

“Our members are already suffering from poverty pay and the company is trying to make the situation even worse.

“Even at this late stage strike action and the disruption it will cause can still be avoided if Arriva makes a realistic pay offer and returns to the negotiating table.”

Arriva UK Bus said it is “deeply disappointed” that negotiations over pay have broken down and it is calling on Unite to call off the strike.

A spokesman added: “Such unjustified strike action will have an extremely negative impact on communities across the region, particularly at this crucial time of year for students undertaking GCSE exams.

“We put forward an improved and generous pay offer, which we were led to believe met Unite’s ambitions. Yet we now find the goal posts have been moved with demands for further increases.

“The mandate for strikes arose from a ballot of Unite members on a previous pay offer, meaning strikes have been announced without the improved proposal being put to employees by the Union.

“Arriva is calling on Unite to abandon their plans for this damaging and counter-productive strike and to ballot their members on the new offer.”