MMDA Chairman Supports DOLE Move for Bus Drivers' Fixed Salaries

Metropolitan Manila Development Authority Chairman Francis Tolentino today lauded the Department of Labor and Employment for requiring bus companies to pay their drivers a fixed salary and provide other benefits mandated by the Labor Code, beginning July 1. "This will significantly reduce the reckless and risk-taking behavior of drivers due to lack of income security," he said.

Last January, the DOLE issued Department Order No. 118-12 covering all public utility bus owners or operators employing drivers and conductors.

The effort to regularize bus driver salaries was one of several proposals and initiatives by the government following the tragic death last year of UP Professor Lourdes Estella Simbulan. Simbulan perished after a passenger bus crashed into a taxi she was riding at Commonwealth Avenue near the UP Technohub in Diliman, Quezon City.

Shortly after Simbulan's untimely demise, both MMDA and DOLE called for an inter-agency dialogue with the Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board, DOLE and bus operators. The agencies conducted ocular inspections of bus terminals and eventually signed a Joint Statement pledging that bus drivers' wages shall be based on part-fixed and part-performance based parameters, instead of purely commission basis.

"I commend the Department of Labor and Employment, especially Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz for her unstinting support for the bus drivers' rights to a fixed salary, rest days, overtime and night differential and other benefits mandated by the Labor Code," said Tolentino. The MMDA chief reiterated his call for drivers to be properly educated on the long-term benefits of this measure, saying that in the long run they will be getting more and would be assured of pension when they retire, thus benefiting their families. - MMDA — ARA