Evening bus service ‘severely disrupted’

The bus terminus in Valletta was deserted last night as Arriva drivers joined an evening strike ordered by the General Workers’ Union.

Bus company Arriva was legally expected to provide at least half the scheduled service despite the strike. But last night it admitted that the service had been “severely disrupted” and urged the public to make alternative travel arrangements.

The decisions taken over the past 24 hours are somewhat unbelievable- Keith Bastow

“While Arriva had prepared detailed plans to run 50 per cent of its services as requested by Maltese legislation, the industrial actions tonight mean that the service is severely disrupted,” it said.

It apologised to its passengers for the inconvenience caused by the situation in which it said it found itself “despite having delivered all that was agreed to between Arriva and the GWU in meetings held last week.”

Earlier, Arriva and the GWU both said they were ready to meet the Director of Industrial Relations today in a conciliation meeting to discuss pending issues over the bus drivers’ rosters.

Before the strike commenced, Arriva said it had identified a number of staff, on the basis of seniority, to provide half of the scheduled service. The company sent a personal letter informing them about the legislation.

It said 322 journeys were supposed to be carried out, however it could not guarantee any of these trips. “We’ve done everything we could to meet contractual obligations and to observe the laws. Hopefully the drivers will recognise their duties,” Arriva managing director Keith Bastow said, urging the public to refrain from depending on the service for the night. He was destined to be disappointed.

He said the company had provided the union with the necessary data to come up with an alternative roster to the one implemented. “I am therefore not sure what the issues are as I have not seen their roster yet.

“The decisions taken over the past 24 hours are somewhat unbelievable,” he said, adding that GWU had informed them the directive applied only for yesterday evening.

A spokesman for the company said Mr Bastow had called the GWU yesterday at around 4 p.m. but it refused to meet.

The GWU issued a statement saying it condemned the “exaggerated threats” by Arriva and Transport Malta against workers who were ordered not to follow the union’s legitimate directive. “This could be because Arriva remembers how Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used to treat workers.”

It said GWU was ready to stop the industrial action today if the conciliation meeting took place.

The union describes Arriva rosters as “long and inhuman”.

Arriva bus drivers yesterday said their rosters left them with no time to spend with their family.

Most of the commuters at Valletta who spoke to The Times during the day were of two minds, blaming neither Arriva nor the bus drivers.

A 58-year old woman said before July there were twice as many buses and drivers. “Now they have to make ends meet and run a supposedly better service, with half the resources, so of course drivers would have long and tiring shifts.”

Another woman proposed her own solution, which she said would benefit the commuters and send a clear message to Arriva: “Instead of refusing to drive, drivers should have stopped collecting bus fares. This would have hurt Arriva and not commuters, because at the end of the day the drivers’ job depends on the commuters’ willingness to use public transport. The public transport service is a huge headache. If they made it even more difficult for us, we might just as well ditch the service and use private cars.”

Many seemed to agree this strike was different from previous ones, because this time the drivers’ complaints seemed “genuine” and the GWU had waited four months before it ordered a strike. It had even asked workers to turn up for work in July, when some threatened a no-show.

A middle-aged man from Żurrieq was however quick to disagree: “We’re back to the bus drivers’ golden years, when they did what they wanted, and stamped their feet when they didn’t get what they wanted.”

“Why did GWU order a strike just as the system started smoothening out its flaws? We’ve experienced improvement during the past week, and it shows,” Jonathan Gauci said, as he point­ed at the Valletta bus terminus, which had half the queues it used to have in the previous months.

“After some old routes were reintroduced, and bus schedules changed, we started gaining confidence in the service. But here comes GWU, ordering a strike. Give us a break please, we’re so tired of this mess,” he added.