The sources were reacting to a story carried in yesterday’s issue of The Malta Independent in which bus owners were quoted as saying that they had not been given an increase in their wage since 1998.
The drivers added that it was only fair that their wage increases from Lm10,200 to Lm15,141 yearly – a rise of Lm4,941 – in view of increases in the cost of diesel and adjustments regarding cost of living.
However, the government sources said that if one had to make the same calculations as the bus owners are making, the resulting figure is very different from the amount being requested.
The source said that the cost of living adjustment (COLA) and the fuel increases over the five years since 1998 amount to a total of Lm663,000. When divided by the number of buses currently operating in Malta – 508 – the amount which is justified to make up for the increases is Lm1,305 per bus. This is only 26.4 per cent of the amount (Lm4,941) being demanded by the bus drivers.
The sources also reacted to Public Transport Association (PTA) president Victor Spiteri saying that the PTA had reached an agreement with the ADT at the beginning of this year. However, the government source said it was not true because no agreement had ever been signed between the PTA and the ADT in 2004.
The source said only negotiations took place and the final package was subject to Cabinet approval, which was never forthcoming because the Cabinet did not agree with the terms and conditions of the proposed agreement.
The source said that the requests the bus owners were making were “unsustainable”. They did not make sense in view of the country’s financial situation and also in view of the fact that every penny had to be accounted for, the source said. The agreement the ADT and the government have to reach with the PTA has to concur with the government policy to reduce its capital costs while at the same time increasing and improving the service it is providing.
Asked how come the ADT reached certain costs at the beginning of this year and how the costs are different eight months down the line, the source said the method with which the costs were calculated was different. Whereas at the beginning of this year the ADT’s experts drew up the costs according to every bus, now we are saying that the cost has to be calculated on the number of trips performed.
The source said the government cannot continue subsidising the buses and the costs the drivers and owners incur if their bus is not being used on days off or when it is being used for private trips. The source continued that when the latter takes place, the buses and their owners will be competing unfairly with other means of transport which do not receive a subsidy from the government.
Asked how bus drivers had calculated, according to Mr Spiteri, a Lm4,800 loss per year, the source said that apart from the COLA and fuel increases, the bus drivers wanted to climb the ladder to scale 17 from scale 18. This meant that from drivers, they wanted to become heavy plant drivers.
A government driver on scale 18 starts with a wage of Lm3,401, with an increment of Lm82 for every year of service to a maximum of Lm3,975. A driver of a heavy plant vehicle on scale 17 starts with Lm3,582, with an increment of Lm90 every year up to a maximum of Lm4,212.
Apart from this, the drivers also received overtime because each driver worked an average of 48 hours per week.
On a final note, replying to a question by The Malta Independent, the source said the government had every intention to reach a peaceful solution to the problem and compromise on the issue. However, the government was making it amply clear that the requests as they stand today are unsustainable.
Meanwhile, this newspaper is informed that the ADT is still in the process of writing to the PTA to inform them about its position.
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