Updated - Drivers explain their position on video

A number of bus drivers have again threatened not to go to work tomorrow - the first day of the new Arriva service - unless they get the shift roster they agreed to.

A group of nearly 200 bus drivers gathered outside the Arriva offices this afternoon, protested that they want to work single, eight hour shifts, not split shifts. They said that the rosters they had been assigned to for next week featured more hours than they had agreed.

The GWU said yesterday that it had reached agreement with Arriva after the bus drivers made their first warning on Thursday.

But the drivers said this afternoon that they were never consulted by the union and the shifts assigned to them were not what they agreed when they signed on.

They demanded immediate talks with senior Arriva Malta officials.

After some time one of the drivers was allowed into the offices to talk with a shop steward and company officials.

However no agreement appears to have been reached. A representative of the drivers said he had been told that those drivers who did not wish to work could return the uniform.

The drivers complained that the shift roster they had been given was inhumane, the situation being compounded by their poor pay. Some of the drivers warned that none of the buses would be allowed out of their compound tomorrow.

The drivers decided to meet again early tomorrow morning to decide whether to work or not.

See video above for drivers' comments