Over $3m in back pay for school maxi drivers

From today maxi taxi drivers for school children will receive millions of dollars in outstanding pay.

This was announced yesterday at a media conference at the Education Ministry on St Vincent Street, Port of Spain.

Education Minister Anthony Garcia said the problem of late payment of fees to maxi taxi drivers had been outstanding for some time. He reported last year that drivers appealed to the Education Ministry to ensure drivers were paid.

“This year, as school reopens, we are met with almost the same situation, where our maxi taxi drivers were not paid since September.”

Garcia said ministry staff had met with officials from the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) and the Maxi Taxi Association for School Transport and a commitment was made to pay outstanding payments for September by today. By the end of the week, the pay for October, November and December will be made.

A ministry official said the amount due was $3.2 million for September for the 320 maxi drivers ($10,000 per month for each driver) and a similar amount for the other three months.

Garcia said a decision was taken to reactivate a committee with representatives from the ministry, PTSC and maxi association. It will meet regularly to iron out problems to ensure payments are made on time and that children have access to education via a transport facility that is adequate, efficient and swift.

PTSC general manager Bashir Mohammed said gaps had been identified and the corporation was committed to bringing the accounts up to date. He said a validation exercise and data collection exercise were implemented to ensure each school had a full list of children using the service. This will be in place by the end of January. A total of 10,352 children in 161 schools have benefited from the service and it is estimated the number will rise to 10,412.

President of the Maxi Taxi Association for School Transport Rodney Ramlogan said the drivers would see the fruits of yesterday’s meeting.

“We are expecting some form of smooth transition of payment after today.”