One of the bus companies whose workers are going on strike today says it's pretty much in the dark about the union's claims.

FIRST Union members are on strike until 4am tomorrow, which will affect 245 Ritchies Murphy bus services in South Auckland and about 100 Pavlovich services in West Auckland.

Pavlovich chief executive Bernard Pavlovich told Mike Yardley the company meets its legal requirements around allowances and sick leave.

He said the company isn't in a position to offer allowances or working conditions better than what it has for at least 17 years, in its previous agreement with the union.

Drivers are being used as pawns in a strategic effort to get the central and local government to address the union's concerns because the bus operators can't, he said.

The union issued the strike notice at 4am yesterday, which Pavlovich said was inconvenient and frustrating. 

"You know we can cope with that internally but it's pretty frustrating for our passengers or more importantly those who are affected, which is frankly less than 10 percent."

The union hasn't been engaged with the company for a number of months and they're not even in collective bargaining, he said. 

Pavlovich said bus operators are paid a fixed price by central Government and councils, so wages can only move with wage movements across the country.

"So look if we all want to pay more rates and taxes, join the bandwagon and pay more wages [but] it's got to be paid for from somewhere.'

He said the model's pretty tough so he does have some empathy with the union.

LISTEN ABOVE AS BERNARD PAVLOVICH SPEAKS WITH MIKE YARDLEY