The head of the land transport sector federations and unions, Bassam Tlais, confirmed that the agreement concluded with the government regarding drivers’ demands must be translated into practical steps within the specified deadline, warning against resorting to field escalation if the policy of procrastination and promises continues.
Tlais criticized the state’s performance in dealing with citizens, considering that it deals with them as customers of a commercial institution whose function is limited to collecting fees and taxes, without taking into account the difficult economic and living conditions. He pointed out the absence of justice in the fuel pricing mechanism, which is quickly affected by global rises while declining very slowly locally, which casts a heavy shadow on the transportation sector and all economic sectors.
He explained that he had previously put forward before the Prime Minister, in the presence of the Ministers of Interior, Finance, Works and Labor, a proposal to allocate a financial allowance to public drivers – similar to a transportation allowance – to compensate them for high operating costs without placing additional burdens on citizens by raising the transportation tariff, pointing to the agreement with the Minister of Labor to formulate a written agreement that was submitted to the Council of Ministers, so that a decision would later be issued to allocate 12 million liras to each public driver who meets the conditions.
In this context, Tlais criticized the method of dealing with the imposition of a tax of 300,000 liras on the fuel tanker to cover the differences in salaries of retirees, military personnel, and employees, indicating that the decision excluded public drivers, despite them bearing the bulk of the burden of the operational crisis.
Tlais stressed that any future move will not be an end in itself, but rather a response to the living reality of the sector, stressing his support for any legitimate move that expresses the drivers’ pain, and his concern that the citizen and the driver do not turn into enemies of each other.
Tlais concluded by stressing that the government deadline granted for four months since last February’s agreement constitutes the final test of the government’s seriousness, announcing an upcoming meeting for the land transport sector next Wednesday to take the appropriate decision for a comprehensive escalation if the promises are not implemented, stressing his full commitment to any decisions taken by the sector’s federations and unions.
