A spokesman for Metro Tasmania has contradicted claims by the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) that its mechanic members were not seeking a 43 per cent pay rise.
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He also said the claim the company paid outside contractors $160,000 over the last month was "incorrect", but failed to elaborate further.
The state-owned bus company gave its mechanics a 10 per cent pay increase recently in the hope of breaking wage bargain talks that have been deadlocked for nine months.
"For the majority of our engineers, they have received a 10.22% increased market adjustment for year one.
"Unfortunately, the Union is seeking a 43 per cent increase in the first year," the spokesman said.
Jacob Batt, state organiser for the AMWU, had on Wednesday labelled the 43 per cent figure a "distortion", and that the union was willing to accept pay rises staged over a number of years.
Franklin MHA David O'Byrne on Wednesday made the explosive claim in parliament, asking the government whether it was true that the state-owned bus company had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to privately contracted mechanics while its own mechanics were on strike.
Mr O'Byrne said Metro's wages strategy was "deliberately disrespectful", with in-house mechanics being paid about $10 per hour less than the industry average.
The private contractors were being paid more than the in-house mechanics on strike, according to the Mr Batt.
The Metro spokesman said the company was "disappointed that the AMWU continues to take this action".
He denied Mr O'Byrne's claim around the $160,000 payment to outside contractor mechanics.
"The Union claims today around expenditure is incorrect."
The spokesman did not provide further details about how the claim was incorrect, but stressed that the company had taken steps to minimise the effect of strikes on its business.
"Metro has a business continuity plan in place and has been able to manage the impact of the protected industrial action, which has resulted in minimal impact to services.
"Metro continues to negotiate with the union in good faith to deliver a new Engineering Employees Enterprise Agreement that is fair, affordable and reasonable."
He said the 10.22 per cent market adjustment that Metro provided to its mechanics was based on "careful analysis of Enterprise Bargaining Agreements" in Tasmania and interstate, and represented a "significant increase to the base rate".
"The market adjustment represents market rates and is at the mid-point of enterprise agreements for other organisations that employ Heavy Vehicle Mechanics."
Mr Batt on Wednesday labelled the decision to use outside contractors an "underhanded ploy by Metro to try to break the morale" of striking mechanics.
The AMWU began taking industrial action last month in protest at the slow pace of negotiations.
Launceston's Metro mechanics travelled to Hobart for the industrial action at Parliament House on Wednesday, leaving no in-house mechanics in the depot there.
"The public need to have this public transport sorted, they need Metro fixed, and the only way to fix Metro is to pay these industry rates of pay - which the contractors are already receiving," Mr Batt said.
