NEW YORK, Dec. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- Top officials with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) resumed talks Sunday afternoon as workers at two private bus companies in Queens are prepared for a strike that could affect 50,000 commuters.

    Talks so far over the weekend have made little progress in closing the wide gap between their contract proposals.

    Meanwhile, the union planned to file a complaint with the state's Public Employment Relation Board, according to reports by The New York Times Sunday.

    Union official Walter Meginniss Jr. argued that a state law covering public-sector workers allows negotiators to discuss pensions during contract talks, but prohibits them from including them in their final offers.

    A union lawyer said the complaint was originally scheduled to be filed via fax on Sunday, but due to a requirement that complaints be filed in person had been postponed until Monday.

    The MTA chief negotiator dismissed the complaint, saying that an official impasse would have to be declared before the suit could be considered valid.

    If the labor board rules in the union's favor, it would take a major issue off the negotiating table. The transit union has opposed an MTA plan to raise the age of full-pension eligibility for new employees to 62 from 55.

    But the MTA had said it made its best offer to the union hours after its contract expired Friday. The offer called for a 9 percent wage increase, phased in over three years. The union demanded annual raises of 8 percent for three years. Currently, train operators, station agents and cleaners earn an annual base salary of between 47,000 and 55,000 dollars.

    Bus and subway workers are prohibited by state law from striking, at the risk of heavy fines and lawsuits.

    The two private bus lines, however, are in the process of being taken over the MTA, as its employees are not yet covered by the state's Taylor Law, which outlaws strikes by public employees.

    Yet union official George Jennings, who represents bus maintenance workers, said it is unsettling to be the first wave. "It's going to be a rough deal. Nobody wants to go on a strike on Christmas," he said. Enditem