Buses will be grounded across much of Melbourne's east and south-east on the last three days before Christmas after Ventura bus drivers chose on Thursday to strike.
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The industrial action is being led by the Transport Workers Union and will put 23 suburban bus routes out of action for three full days from Monday to Wednesday next week.
The strike is limited to Ventura's Oakleigh and Knox depots, which service the eastern and south-eastern suburbs, including route 742 to Chadstone shopping centre, one of the busiest places in Melbourne at this time of year.
Other routes to Chadstone are unaffected by the strike.
Services on routes 701 to 768 - 23 routes in all - will be grounded. The routes take in suburbs from Chelsea and Mordialloc in the south to Glen Iris and Bentleigh in the inner south-east and Mitcham and Upper Ferntree Gully in the outer east.
Public Transport Victoria chief Mark Wild said people who had planned to use those buses would need to find other means of travel.
"This type of disruption is unfortunate and very inconvenient for public transport users, particularly at this time of year," Mr Wild said.
David Hodgett, the new shadow minister for public transport, said it was the worst time of the year for drivers to strike, when pre-Christmas shopping was at its peak.
"Daniel Andrews has to show some leadership and call the unions into line," Mr Hodgett said. "Before the election you couldn't stop Daniel Andrews getting in front of a microphone, but since then he's gone camera shy."
An Andrews government spokeswoman said: "This is a matter between Ventura and its workforce. The Victorian government calls on all parties to sit down and work this matter out."
Attempts to contact the Transport Workers Union for comment failed. The union and Ventura avoided industrial action earlier this month when they struck an 11th-hour deal the night before a planned 24-hour strike.
The industrial dispute centres on changes Ventura wants to make to drivers' working conditions.
The union is fighting to preserve conditions that guarantee overtime and weekend penalty rates, the union's senior passenger vehicles organiser Michael McNess said at the time. Drivers fear that agreeing to Ventura's offer would result in working more than a 38-hour week without being paid penalty rates.
