Talks between the Department of Community, Culture and Leisure and the bus drivers' union Unite are set to resume today (18 Dec).

Within the last few days both sides have said they're willing to sit down for further negotiations despite Thursday, Friday and Saturday's scheduled strikes by drivers.

The DCCL and Unite have been at loggerheads for months over planned changes to drivers' terms and conditions, which the union claims will result in members facing a pay cut of up to ?3000 per year.

Speaking last week in the wake of the vote in favour of a strike, DCCL Chief Executive Nick Black said the department remained flexible as to how its savings were to be made, but insisted the figure of ?300,000 could not change.

At the time, Unite's National Officer for Passenger Transport Bobby Morton said despite the two sides remaining far apart in terms of where the savings should be made, he was hopeful something could still be worked out:

(audio comprises comments from Mr Black and Mr Morton)