Morocco- Agreement ends bus transport strike

(MENAFN - Morocco Business News) The strike of bus workers, which has seriously disrupted Rabat's urban transport system for an entire week, has come to an end after the agreement between the trade unions and the new company which will monopolize this kind of transport.

In fact, as off November 1, the capital's bus transport management will be assigned to one company called "Stareo", constituted by Veolia Group and two of the old bus operators.

And since the companies which were operating before will no longer exist, thousands of workers and their families will find themselves overnight without income.

Although the new company said that it would hire some of them, most of these workers refused ton sign the contract, complaining about its terms. So they decided to go on strike, leaving the capital crippled.

"The contracts proposed by the new operator are much below our expectations and what we really deserve," one of the bus drivers told Morocco Business News.

Thus, with the intervention of the interior ministry, an agreement has been reached after hard negotiations between the new company and the unions representing these workers.

"Through this agreement, our company will hire about 3,200 of old companies' workers, who will maintain their welfare entitlements, including their seniority," said the director general of Veolia Transport Maroc.

It is worth noting that most of Casablanca and Rabat's commonly seen buses will disappear in few days. Each of the two cities' bus transport system will be monopolized by one single company: M'dina Bus in the former and Veolia Transport in the latter.

Hence, the companies which have been in charge of bus transport in the two cities for about two decades had received a letter from the authorities telling them to stop their activities by the end of October, a date which actually marks the end of their contracts.

The letter also told these companies to take the necessary measures in order to make this transition a smooth one and allow the new transport managing companies to exploit their respective regions in good conditions.