Passenger transport companies considering staging a strike

  • 2012-05-03

RIGA - Latvian Passenger Transport Companies' Association will be waiting until May 10 for the Transport Ministry's solutions regarding subsidies for compensating passenger transport companies' losses; if no reply is received from the Transport Ministry, the association will consider staging a strike, as the association's president Peteris Salkazanovs told business portal Nozare.lv.

At the moment, two passenger transport companies are on the brink of bankruptcy, said Salkazanovs.

According to the Road Transport Administration's estimates, the 2012 budget will be short of 8 million lats (11.4 million euros), whereas last year, the total amount of unpaid compensation to passenger transport companies was 1.8 million lats.

Salkazanovs informs that the Passenger Transport Companies' Association's board will meet on May 10 to consider announcing a strike. Transport Ministry's State Secretary Anrijs Matiss is expected to attend the board meeting and tell how the situation could be solved.

The Transport Ministry previously said that passenger transport companies would be compensated their 2011 losses. The only question is when and how much money they will be given. The final decision will be made by the Cabinet of Ministers, but the Transport Ministry and the Passenger Transport Companies' Association urge the government to solve the problem as soon as possible to prevent bankruptcy of several transport companies.