00:00The Transport and Industrial Workers Union is currently negotiating a double-digit increase for PTSC workers, a figure the union
00:09does not wish to make public.
00:11The bus drivers who transport human cargo are currently, they operate on a classic license. And when you do comparison
00:24to truck drivers like at the ports and throughout the different transport industries, we are the lowest speed.
00:31So looking at that ideology, the unions had made, the union, through the proposal team, had proposed something very high.
00:43Close to 1,000 PTSC workers are currently working on 2014 salaries. Their union met with the corporation today.
00:52These negotiations are for the period 2015 to 2017, and the second period is 2018 to 2020.
01:05The corporation is still awaiting instructions from the line ministry as to the forward movement of these ongoing negotiations.
01:17And what has been the feedback from the CPO's office?
01:21We have no feedback from the CPO's office at this point in time.
01:25But the union is denying claims made by PTSC that workers are undertaking industrial action, causing service delays and cancellations.
01:36But the union rep admits that workers do have safety concerns.
01:41There's no industrial action taking place right now.
01:43It is the same issue that we've been facing for the past couple of years.
01:51It's an aged, very small fleet.
01:56The fleet is now down to less than 100.
02:02And we have been asking for new buses to come to bring the fleet up to standard.
02:08The union rep says the last time PTSC received new buses was between 2021 and 2022.
02:17And to his recollection, it was only five buses.
02:20So our corporation has serviced over 150 routes, five buses not going to cut it.
02:29PTSC, to complete what they have to do, they would need over 300 buses.
02:35That is a guarantee to service.
02:37And I believe there's much more than that also, the 150 plus routes, they would need over 300 buses.
02:45And at present, we have on average 100, less than 100 on a daily basis.
02:52Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
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