The General Workers’ Union has instructed Arriva bus drivers to work only up to 8 p.m. every day until the transport provider alters the workers’ rosters.
The government, however, said Arriva will be expected to provide at least half the scheduled service despite the strike.
The GWU yesterday said the Arriva rosters were “long and inhuman” despite repeated attempts and proposals to solve the problem. It had been prudent in the past four months and had even proposed a roster which benefitted both the company and its workers.
Arriva bus drivers yesterday told The Times their rosters seemed to be getting worse, leaving them with no time to spend with their loved ones.
“My new roster will deprive me of spending time with my children for weeks on end, a bus driver on his way to the Valletta drop-off terminus said.
Another middle-aged driver said his new roster would see him leaving home before the first streaks of dawn, six days a week, for three whole weeks, and then work late for the subsequent three weeks. According to his working conditions, his early and late shifts were supposed to alternate on a weekly basis, he said.
“To make matters worse, we’re paid a standard rate, no matter the time of day or the size of the bus we drive. We’re paid a pittance for the responsibility we take for the lives of so many people who board the buses every day,” he sighed.
“I never thought that such a large company would end up in this mess, in such a small country,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Transport Ministry instructed Transport Malta not to tolerate a reduction of more than half of the scheduled services during the industrial action. It said that as part of the public transport reform, the service was defined as an essential one under the law of industrial relations. Arriva could, therefore, implement normal disciplinary procedures against employees that did not follow legitimate orders to provide an essential service, notwithstanding the industrial action.
The ministry urged the GWU and Arriva to reach an agreement.
This is the second industrial action since the union ordered drivers not to perform extra trips for the air show in September. The GWU said it remained open to further talks with Arriva.
In a statement last night, Arriva said it was extremely dissapointed with the call for industrial action, in spite of the fact it had done all that was agreed to when the two sides held talks last week.
The GWU decision not only ignored the agreement but effectively contradicted and disrupted the work Arriva and union representatives had been carrying out for the past two days, when an exercise was initiated to develop rosters that met the union’s aspirations.
The industrial action only hurt employees, GWU members and the public, at a time when the agreement could still be adhered to in their best interests, Arriva said.