Multisectoral group setting driver’s pay

WAGES of bus drivers must be based on part-fixed and part-performance instead of purely commission basis, the Metro Manila Development said Friday.

Chairman Francis Tolentino said the wage’s fixed component should not be lower than the minimum for the National Capital Region, but the performance component should reflect safety parameters, such as zero road accidents and traffic violations, company revenues and other factors of productivity.

He said this was the consensus of his discussions with Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz, Angelo Gamboa and Leonides Rabanes of the Bus Transport Industry Tripartite Council, and representatives from the Department of Transportation and Communication, Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board and Land Transportation Office.

The move was a result of a series of studies and surveys made by an inter-agency technical working group to adopt and implement measures to promote public transport safety and set a standard compensation policy in the transport industry.

“After Professor (Lourdes) Simbulan’s untimely demise, I pledged to implement profound, institutional and fundamental changes in traffic management and labor laws, to police the operations of the bus transport industry,” he said, referring to the accident involving the University of the Philippines faculty member on Commonwealth Avenue.

“We must be assured of safe, healthy and optimum working conditions and wage rates for bus drivers and other transport personnel. They should not be exploited by unscrupulous operators whose only aim is to maximize profit at the expense of public welfare, safety and security.”

Tolentino said the compensation package will be implemented next year to covered by a DOLE wage order. –Rio N. Araja, Manila Standard Today