Today, many commuters on all BRT terminals in Lagos State, were stranded when the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme drivers and ticketers embarked on an indefinite strike over unpaid salaries and reversed terms of service. .
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A driver, Adejire, that spoke to NAN, said: “For the past days we have been waiting for our salary for July but up to this moment we have not received alert for the payment. The policy guiding our job is another issue; we are working like slaves because as a driver you cannot stop to ease yourself or have break time or hour.
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We are supposed to be doing 40 hours in a week but they subdued us to be doing 48 hours and only one day off instead of two days. Also, in our appointment letter, they said we will receive N60,000 as basic salary and N20,000 as performance bonus.
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Suddenly, they changed it to N40,000 basic and N40,000 bonus with a lot of conditions attached to the bonus. For instance, a driver will be denied the bonus pay if he or she is late to work for at least 3 times a month.
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They sanction us anyhow and cut salaries and allowances. Our working hours are from 6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10pm but this has been extended without prior notice. There is no provision for staff bus and if one closes late, he is forced to pass the night in the office, pay N500 monthly to sleep in a nearby church or risk being attacked by hoodlums.”
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The company’s MD, Fola Tinubu, said: "We took the decision to review the salary to instill discipline in them. We discovered that majority of them are not conscientious and when they take the buses out they just park somewhere and don’t work.
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So, we decided to shift the salary to N40,000 and the bonus to N40,000; it is exactly the same amount, but we don’t want to pay people that will not work. The way the country is today you cannot expect us to be paying people that don’t want to work, so that’s the genesis of the whole issue."
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