in 2024 November 14 police They started checking in Vilnius public transport UAB "Transrevis" drivers and discovered that some of the drivers from Ghana were transporting passengers without the necessary driver's licenses. The police stopped their work and started an investigation into the identified violations, reports the Lithuanian trade union Solidarumas.
At present, more than 70 employees from the African country of Ghana work in the company Transrevis UAB. Employees of this company have heard about plans to employ even more foreigners.
The first thirty drivers from Ghana started working in December last year. In the autumn of this year, about forty more employees arrived from this country, most of whom work as public transport drivers, serving the G4, 88, 43 bus routes in Vilnius.
As soon as these foreigners started working, suspicions arose that they do not have the necessary driving licenses, as local drivers noticed that they often break traffic rules, cause emergency situations on the road, fail to park their buses and often hit obstacles with their buses, scratching the vehicles they drive.
Local drivers were surprised by the fact that foreigners refused to show their drivers' licenses to their colleagues.
Despite the fact that, according to the drivers working there, foreigners also commit many violations, which are determined by UAB "Communication services”, which controls the provision of public transport services in the capital and imposes fines on the company for violations, more and more drivers from Ghana were employed.
When Janina Mankienė, the chairperson of UAB "Transrevis" trade union, asked the company's director in the spring when the wages of drivers would be increased, because in other companies providing public transport services in Vilnius and Beautiful drivers' wages were increased by 10%, the director replied that the drivers' wages would not be increased because they were suitable for Africans, who were to be employed in more numbers.
It is important to note that the management of Transrevis UAB, which is controlled by foreign capital, has been avoiding social dialogue for several years and refuses to enter into a collective agreement for several years, despite the fact that such agreements exist in companies engaged in this activity in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities.
Because of the "frozen" wages and the "pairing" of local drivers who do not speak English with foreigners who cannot be spoken to, local drivers have started to quit their jobs.
It is interesting that foreigners who do not know the Lithuanian language and speak English poorly have been working for almost a year, for which they do not have the right to work according to the laws of Lithuania, because they must speak the official Lithuanian language.
Due to the problems of social dumping and the work of foreigners in Lithuania, the Lithuanian trade union "Solidarity" together with the Ministry of the Interior organized an interdepartmental meeting with representatives of the responsible institutions at the end of August of this year, which was chaired by the Deputy Minister of the Interior Agneta Ladek.
When the chairman of the forum of trade unions of Lithuanian transport workers, Broniis Bučelius, urged the police chiefs present at the meeting to check whether the foreigners working at UAB "Transrevis" have the necessary driver's licenses, they replied that they did not intend to take this request into account and would not change their already planned procedure for checking road users.
A spokeswoman for the employment service refused to believe that the company could employ people who did not have the necessary driving licenses as drivers, as she said it could not be, and also refused to carry out a check.
When asked why foreigners from third countries were granted work permits for which they do not have the necessary qualifications, i.e. they do not know the state language required for public transport drivers, the representative of the Migration Department replied that according to the current laws, if the employer indicates that he will pay the foreigner the average salary of the country for the previous year, the qualification requirement may not apply. The Migration Department does not care whether foreigners who have received permission to work in Lithuania have the necessary certificates, because the employer who employs them is responsible for that.
The representatives of the State Labor Inspectorate replied that they only check the working and living conditions of foreigners, and revealed that after their inspection, workers from Ghana no longer live in the premises of UAB Transrevis, which are not suitable for this purpose.
Currently, the number of drivers from abroad who do not know the state Lithuanian language, which is mandatory for this job, but unlike the locals, do not ask for a higher salary, is already increasing in other Vilnius public transport companies.
We can only hope that the police will check whether all foreigners working as bus drivers have the necessary documents and that there will be no traffic accident in which many passengers and other road users will be killed and injured.
Author: Lithuanian trade union "Solidarity"
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