The Federation of Transport Entrepreneurs (FET) announced yesterday that next Monday, January 9th, they will carry out a one-day protest meaning no buses on the first day back at school, against "the delays by the Ministry of Education in fulfilling economic commitments with the sector”, claiming they have been owed “millions” for decades. It does not appear at the moment that it will continue during the following days.
To justify such a decision, FET explained that it was decided during a meeting held yesterday (Monday), in which the door was also opened to the possibility of “tightening the pressure measures” in the near future if the ministry does not carry out their obligations to prevent an “administrative-economic collapse of transport services”.
FET recalled that, the bus service was already on the verge of not being provided for this school year due to the "enormous economic gap" between the price that was contracted and what has actually been paid to the bus companies.
"However, a proposal from the Ministry of Education with a time scale to rectify the economic situation, allowed the transport sector to agree to start the 2022-23 school year normally in the confidence of compliance with the commitment", they said, “but it hasn’t happened”.
In addition, they added that the information received from the Government shows that "it is not known" when they will be able to pay the difference. In fact, “there has been not even been a debt acknowledgment document formalized that allows transport companies to resort to legal routes if necessary to guarantee that one way or another they will get paid,” stressed FET.
Currently, there are four school transport contracts in force in the Canary Islands which the Ministry of Education had promised to update the economic modules of, without any of them having received such an increase.
In addition, they claim that the Ministry has been carrying a debt of around 14 million euros for ten years to the transport companies, due to the clause included in the contracts related to the fluctuations of the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
It is only fair to add that FET emphasized that they regret having to go to these extremes, but considers that it cannot bear "the negative consequences that the Administration's internal management problems entail for a sector that tries to maintain its activity despite rising inflation”.
