Aayalolo Drivers Declare Strike Over Unpaid Salaries

Drivers of the Quality Bus System (QBS), otherwise known as Aayalolo in Accra, are on strike over management's inability to pay them their outstanding salaries.

This has left some passengers who patronize the bus service stranded.

This would be the third time Aayalolo drivers have embarked on such an action over unpaid salaries.

The drivers who spoke to Citi News said talks with management to help create a union for their welfare have fallen on deaf ears.

“Since we started this job, from 2016 till now, we have not been paid regularly and fully,” one driver said.

“As at now, we don't have any money, we are constantly borrowing, and the little money they give us we use it to pay our debt and we are back to square one, so we are begging the government to do something about it,” another driver said.

The Public Affairs Manager of the Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE), managers of the QBS, Fred Chidi, said on Eyewitness News that management of GAPTE is shocked at the action of the drivers.

According to him, the drivers’ concerns are already being addressed.

“As we speak right now, the national labour commission intervened in the matter. The case is at arbitration as the rule states that once a case is in arbitration, the partners are not supposed to do anything to rock the boat, and so that is where we are. The workers’ group reported this case to the labour commission and the commission has taken over the matter, we’ve been at arbitration since June, so we were surprised this morning when the drivers refused to work,” he said.

Last year, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development charged the newly-inaugurated Board of the Greater Accra Passenger Transport Executive (GAPTE), to investigate the circumstances under which the management of the Aayalolo buses accrued huge debts, particularly in relation to the purchase of fuel.

According to them, the Board must probe the structure and the mode of fuel distribution for the buses.

The situation has led to low patronage of the system resulting in the inability of the company to earn enough to cover operational costs.

Addressing the media after a tour of some bus terminals, the Chief Executive Officer of GAPTE , Sampson Gyamenah, admitted that low patronage of the bus service since the programme commenced in 2016 has kept the company in the red.

“We still have a long way to go to be able to break even. We are ramping up the number of passengers and that is the real challenge. When we started the patronage was very poor. In December, we were doing an average of 1, 400 passengers a day.”

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