BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The management of Vallacar Transit Inc. assured the public yesterday of normal operations of buses plying the Bacolod-Victorias-Bacolod route, amid the holding of a picket by about 20 disgruntled drivers and fare collectors.
VTI media relations officer Jade Seballos said that those involved in the picket at the Ceres Liner bus terminal in Victorias City demanded that they should be paid their “tripping allowance” in full.
Seballos said the tripping allowance was given to drivers and fare collectors plying what she called the losing route, and granted by Leo Rey Yanson out of pity.
It was not even included in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, she said, adding that the workers’ union was not informed of the picket.
Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Seballos said the management is only giving them 50 percent of the “tripping allowance”, as of this time.
She claimed that they received reports that those who are not joining the picket are being threatened. The VTI management has mobilized more units to serve commuters from Victorias to Bacolod, and vice versa, aside from the regular buses coming from northern Negros, that pass by the Victorias City bus terminal.*
