Bus drivers want temperature tests for passengers

National Trade Union Centre (NATUC) general secretary Michael Annisette said the management and board of the Public Transport Services Corporation (PTSC) must implement temperature testing for passengers boarding PTSC buses, as three members of staff are positive for covid19.

Annisette spoke on behalf of PTSC workers, alongside the Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU), at a press conference on Friday.

TIWU first vice president Paul Smith claimed PTSC general manager Davis Ragoonanan, along with several members of the administrative staff, were in quarantine following confirmation of the three positive cases.

Annisette said while temperature testing was done at the terminal, at the beginning of the pandemic in March, PTSC management made the “unilateral” decision that there was no need to continue it.

“I'm asking the CMO (and) Minister of Health whether the board has the right to withdraw that service.”

Annisette also said temperature testing of all passengers was necessary, including for maxi taxis and taxis.

Smith claimed management has been reluctant to provide proper PPE at the bus terminals, including hand sanitisation pumps, water basins and bodysuits to clean buses after every trip.

He said buses were are not outfitted with sanitisers and some also do not have fire extinguishers.

He said plastic drapes, described as “curtains”, were implemented after an incident where a passenger spat in a driver’s face for advising her not to travel if she was sick. The passenger was reportedly coughing when the driver made the comment.

Smith said the drapes were insufficient and bus drivers required sturdier plexiglass to separate them from passengers. He said bus drivers were not protesting, nor were they unwilling to work, but wanted management to implement proper PPE in the terminals and on the buses.

When Newsday visited the Port of Spain bus terminal, at City Gate, on Friday, there was no washbasin and only two newly installed pumps on a wall. A few buses were equipped with small sanitiser pumps. PTSC workers said the pumps were only installed on the buses and terminal that morning by management “for show.”

“It is not a protest action,” said Smith of drivers’ refusal to work. “It is a work-to-rule within the health and safety (act) and the pandemic act,” he said. “Protest action is required by law to provide notice to your employer.”

A work-to-rule refers to the refusal to do any additional work as a passive form of protest.

Ragoonanan, in a phone interview with Newsday, said workers, to his knowledge, stopped working on Thursday, with only a few buses going out. “From my opinion, once they are not driving the buses, they are striking, they have taken industrial action which is not legal.”

He said temperature testing was not mandatory in the same way masks are.

“We do have temperature testing for staff and we are looking at alternatives to doing temperature testing for passengers on the buses, but to say we are compromising the safety of passengers, not true because it is not mandatory.”

Ragoonanan said management has been in constant communication with the union and said sanitisers would be placed on all buses, but it was a work in progress. He said the sanitisers at the Port of Spain terminal looked new because broken or damaged pumps were replaced. “We have been assuring them these are things we are going to do."

He said the management was looking at plexiglass for drivers’ protection, but this was not available at the time. He said the plastic covers were a cost-effective alternative, which the team had seen used in other areas of business.

Ragoonanan confirmed members of staff were quarantined, himself included, but had not been tested because they were secondary contacts of the three confirmed cases. He said there were no additional cases.

“I know workers are fearful, the world is fearful, but we are doing everything possible to ensure the safety of our workers.”