LTA warns of breach of licence

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has called upon the Central Transport bus company to get their drivers back at work to provide services to customers. LTA says customers were adversely affected as a result of the strike by Central Transport drivers yesterday morning.

In a statement, LTA chief executive officer Samuel Simpson said the Central Transport bus company was in breach of its operating licence. “We urge the company to get their drivers back to work quickly to restore service to customers,” he said. Thirty drivers for Central Transport Co Limited stopped work yesterday protesting for an increase in their pay rate. The routes affected were Nabua, University of the South Pacific, Vatuwaqa and Samabula.

A spokesperson for the drivers, Ilaisa Jiko, said they encountered difficulties with their conditions of employment.

“We want a pay rise. The rate we are paid at the moment is $3.35/hr and $152.35 weekly, that is if we work 48 hours weekly,” he said.

“We want the management to increase it to $300 per week.”

Mr Jiko said to receive $300 weekly, they had to work 12 to 14 hours per day. The incident which happened recently was that the management gave a pay increase of 25c to non-union members and the union members were left out,” he said. Mr Jiko called on members of the public to bear with them because it had been an issue for years now. We want an improvement in our working conditions and pay,” he said.

Attempts to get comments from the manager for Central Transport Co Limited were unsuccessful. When a team from the Fiji Sun went to the company office at Jai Hanuman Road, Vatuwaqa, office staff declined to comment and told the team that the manager would not see them or comment on the issue. When the team checked late yesterday only a few buses were operating the hospital and USP routes.

A spokesperson said the drivers were still in negotiations with the company and were hoping to sign an agreement before resuming duties today.