On Friday we brought you the complaints of Benque Viejo bus drivers (See Novelo's Bus Drivers Revolt) who say they are waiting to be fired, claiming that their busses and runs from Benque to Belize had been taken away from them. They expect to be laid off as redundant and fear that if that happens they won't be fully paid off for their years of service. Well today, Novelo's Bus Line responded to the complaints.
In a release, the company concedes that there are discrepancies in the employment records of Western Transport Limited workers. That's because there are no records to indicate how the sale was conducted between Novelo's and its own subsidiary, Western. And because of that, there no telling where the responsibility for severance benefits lies. But the employees claim that they never worked for Western Transport Limited, they've always worked for Novelo's Bus Line pointing to the fact that all their Social Security Payments have been made under that company.
And while that remains unclear, the Novelo's release goes on to say that the company has set out policies that many of the Western Transport drivers have ignored. For their part, the drivers say the demands interfere with the driving of the bus which demands their absolute attention. Sounds like a petty back and forth, but the situation bears watching, because the bus drivers have threatened to demonstrate if they don't get satisfactory answers from management and as recent history has shown any civil protest in the far west bears serious watching.