CEBU CITY – All bus drivers in the country must receive a regular salary that’s higher than minimum wage and must work for only eight hours a day starting Jan. 16, Manuel Iway, of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board member, said.

The granting of regular salaries, instead of a percentage of the day’s earnings, is required under a memorandum circular that the agency issued  on  Jan. 3.

The LTFRB’s decision to get rid of the percentage scheme is expected to make bus rides safer, because drivers won’t have to take risks, like speeding or taking drugs, to make more trips.

However, Julito Flores, president of the Cebu South Mini-Bus Operators Association, said operating a transport system is a business, so  LTFRB should focus only on franchising and regulation.

In limiting the drivers’ workday to eight hours, he said, the LTFRB did not consider that drivers spend a lot of time waiting for passengers.

It takes an hour, for example, to drive from Carcar to Cebu City, but the bus driver often ends up waiting three to four hours at the South Bus Terminal in Cebu City for their next trip, Flores said.

Richard Corominas, president of the Cebu Provincial Bus Operators Association, meanwhile, said the drivers’ income would drop if LTFRB implements the new wage scheme.

The circular, however, is not just LTFRB’s idea.

Iway said it was  based on the memorandum of agreement among LTFRB, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Transportation and Communication and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.

Apart from Iway, Board Member Julius Samuel Garcia and Chairman Jaime Jacob also signed the new LTFRB circular.

The minimum wage in Metro Manila ranges from P389 to P426 per day, depending on the establishment. In Metro Cebu, it is P305, based on the wage order issued in  October 2010.

Corominas said   most operators in Cebu give 10 percent to drivers based on the net bus earnings.

For gross sales of P7,000, minus the fuel cost of P3,000, the driver gets P400.

Drivers, Corominas said, would prefer that over the P305 minimum wage.

However, Iway said that,  granting the computation is correct, the driver does not really get the full P400, because he still has to pay his conductor and bus helper.

Iway added that the circular specifies a compensation package that will also give bus drivers security of tenure, plus coverage under Social Security System, Pag-ibig Fund, and Philippine Health Corp.*PNA

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