SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Sep 7 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs of the Canary Islands (FET) has warned this Tuesday that next week a strike in school transport will begin if the pressure of the Ministry of Education of the regional government continues to lower the prices of the service three days before beginning of the course.
In fact, the businessmen indicate in a statement that this Thursday, when the course starts, there will be no service on the routes subject to the validation procedure.
The federation, through the general secretary, José Carlos Hernández, points out that the Ministry sent a statement this Monday to all transport companies proposing a price reduction of around 40% on routes subject to validation procedure, granting a within three days to reply.
This proposal, he points out, “has taken carriers by surprise” because the reasons for the price reduction proposal are not specified or justified, nor why it is notified “in extremis” three days before the start of the new course, about all bearing in mind that the same prices have been applied for several school years.
On the other hand, it indicates that companies have been requesting the Ministry of Education to apply the updating of various economic concepts established by the legislation and by the contracts in force without having received a response from the administration.
Specifically, employers demand the updating of the CPI for the last six years, as well as the recognition of the minimum interprofessional salary of school companions that has not been paid by the Ministry in recent years.
This situation, he assures, has caused a deep malaise in the companies and workers of the sector, to whom the Ministry of Education has not paid the last monthly payments of the past year “and they see their immediate future in danger now.”
In the assembly held this Tuesday it was agreed that if within a week there is no response to compliance with the IPC, the SMI and the payment of the pending amounts, the rest of all school transport services in the Canary Islands would be suspended.
The FET regrets this “unexpected situation” whose damages Canary society will suffer and appeals to the “understanding of families in the face of erratic actions by the Administration”.
In addition, remember that last summer the Ministry already raised the refusal to extend school contracts in the last week of August, opening a sector “conflict”.
