Eighty-six bus drivers were back at work Monday, ending a three-day strike in Yunnan Province against a company's policy that would affect their livelihoods, an official said.

The drivers who served 10 routes in Wuding County, Yi Autonomous Prefecture of Chuxiong, returned to work after the government promised to carefully deal with their complaints over operation rights and management fees, according to Zhou Yunzhi, deputy secretary of the Wuding County Committee of the Communist Party of China.

A working team comprising more than 10 officials of the county government met with more than 40 representatives of the drivers Sunday night, saying it will act as a mediator over the dispute.

But no response has been made by the company so far.

The Wuding Transportation Company, under the privately-owned Kunming Transportation Group., began to purchase its own buses to replace the contracted drivers' outdated vehicles in 2006 despite drivers' negotiation attempt.

In addition, the overall management fees charged by the company were much higher than those in other regions of the province.

Drivers stopped work Friday morning to show their discontentment, forcing the local transportation authority to allocate more than 50 mini-vans to carry passengers over the past three days.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2009)