PTSC industrial action affects School's Chutney Soca Monarch

President of the National Chutney Foundation Dr Vijay Ramlal-Rai said he was saddened by industrial action by Public Service Transport Corporation (PTSC) drivers which left a number of school children without transport for Wednesday’s School’s Intellectual National Carnival Chutney Soca Monarch Competition.

Ramlal-Rai spoke on the issue in his opening remarks of the competition at the Grand Stand, Queen’s Park Savannah. He said it was supposed to be a happy day but there was the unfortunate position on Tuesday at 3.30 pm where the organisers were informed by the PTSC that arrangements for 2,000 children and 22 schools were cancelled because, owing to industrial action, the drivers were unavailable.

“It brought sadness to us today. But I am so happy and proud to see so many children here on their own accord.”

Speaking with Newsday in a telephone interview earlier, Ramlal-Rai said, "We have a contractual agreement with PTSC every year. We were not given enough notice to make alternative arrangements."

He added, “PTSC was hoping that the drivers would come out today to transport the students from 22 schools. I understand that PTSC offered the drivers an additional incentive, but the drivers declined.”

Ramlal-Rai said the schools were contacted and asked to bring as many students as they could but making other arrangements on such short notice posed a significant challenge.

He added the committee sought an intervention by the Ministry of Education (MoE) but little could be done.

“We spoke to officials at the MoE and they said that it is really out of their hands. There is nothing that they could do.”

Ramlal-Rai said, while he understood the action of the PTSC workers, he hoped they would have facilitated the students.

In his remarks at the competition, Ramlal-Rai said he was not sure there would be any children at the competition but from 4 pm into the night on Tuesday, transport arrangements were made with private maxis.

He said, “This is a psychological blow to the children, the teachers and the organisers who have been planning this for weeks. It is very emotional, very bad for us. But the kids have been proved to be very strong and very resilient.”

Ramlal-Rai added that he explained the situation to Education Minister Anthony Garcia, who was in attendance, and he was not sure if Garcia would speak on it in his feature address. Garcia, however, did not mention the issue.

Ramlal-Rai said he believed the PTSC drivers were not trying to sabotage the competition noting the industrial action began on Tuesday.

Contacted for comment, Transport and Industrial Workers Union (TIWU) assistant general secretary Roopnarine Roopchan said he was unable to confirm that any special offer of incentive was made to PTSC drivers to convince them to transport children to Wednesday's competition. He was also unable to confirm the status of industrial action at the corporation.

A release from PTSC on Wednesday morning, however, said industrial action by workers at the corporation "remains ongoing."

"The PTSC sincerely apologises to the travelling public and is aware of the adverse impact on our commuters especially school children, the elderly and working individuals who depend solely on our buses to get to their respective destinations," the release said.

The corporation advised commuters to make alternative travel arrangements Wednesday.

"Our immediate focus is to restore our services back to normal as we are fully aware of our mandate of delivering a reliable service to the travelling public.

"The PTSC continues to work on behalf of its commuters to arrive at an early solution."

Newsday contacted PTSC chairman Edwin Gooding for comment but he was unavailable.