The bus driver's union has accepted a 14 per cent salary increase for Public Service Transport Corporation (PTSC) employees, bringing an end to nine days of work-to-rule action.
Officials of the Transport and Industrial Workers Union met with Transport Minister Stephen Cadiz, Junior Finance Minister Rudranath Indarsingh and PTSC senior management at the Radisson Hotel, Port-of-Spain, on Thursday evening and hammered out a deal.
A union official told the T&T Guardian that workers were pleased with the increase, which will apply not only to drivers but to PTSC workers across the board.
"Drivers got an increase from $44.41 to $54.50 an hour, with a consolidated Cost-of-Living Allowance (Cola), which brings the entire agreement to a 17 per cent increase."
The official said there was supposed to be an added duty allowance for drivers of $3 per hour but the allowance was removed after employees in the engineering department objected to it.
"There was opposition to drivers getting an extra duty allowance, mainly by employees of the engineering department who thought it was unfair to give it to drivers alone."
However, yesterday, drivers at the King's Wharf bus terminal, San Fernando, refused to resume duties.
The official told the Guardian this might be due to the removal of the duty allowance.
"That is not union action. That is the drivers on their own, they are defecting buses and refusing to drive them. It looks like an effort to get back at the engineering department for the duty allowance."