This amount also covered expenses the bus drivers had to incur such as the price of diesel – which is on constant increase – and other expenses such as mechanical repairs for their buses.

Speaking to The Malta Independent, the president of the Public Transport Association Victor Spiteri, explained that with the amount as it stands today, each bus owner is losing Lm4,800 a year. He said bus owners, most of whom drive their own bus, were not prepared to continue incurring expenses left, right and centre without getting anything for it.

He said that at the beginning of this year the PTA had negotiated and reached an agreement with the Malta Transport Authority (ADT) on the revenue for bus drivers. He said this agreement stipulated that bus owners would receive Lm15,141 every year, when compared to Lm10,200 they used to get in 1998.

He said this increase made sense and strengthened his argument with an analogy: “Last week we saw the government giving the green light to an increase in the cost of Maltese bread. This decision was taken after taking into consideration the increase in bakers’ spending since the price of wheat and flour had also risen.”

“Our expenses have increased considerably. Diesel has increased several times since 1998 but our revenue was never adjusted to reflect this increase in our expenses,” Mr Spiteri said.

Asked about the government’s plans to phase out the subsidies government was giving the bus owners, Mr Spiteri said they were never complaining about that. “We never asked for the subsidies. The government decided to introduce the subsidies so that the bus fares would not increase. We never complained that the subsidies should not be phased out. They can remove the subsidy as much as they want but they have to make up for it with a wage rise,” he said.

Asked for his reaction to comments that the ADT “cannot keep increasing wages if the service remains the same – if not deteriorates”, Mr Spiteri said that people who say this are fixated that the service was not improving.

“Of course the service is improving. We were the people who introduced new routes where we saw that it was needed. Examples are the routes to university and Sliema. There are 147 new buses. Is that not an improvement?

“The association is prepared to help its members to continue improving but we cannot remain on the same income as 1998,” he said. Asked about the ultimatum the association gave to the ADT for the conclusion of the negotiations, Mr Spiteri said the association will, this time, stick to its guns.

“We were taken for a ride on too many occasions. We will be very strict about it. If by the end of this month we are not paid what we are owed, there are many possible options with regards to industrial action. The worst action we could take is stopping public transport altogether,” he said.