Jobs at stake

PSV employees worried cashless system will lead to mass layoffs By Sheria Brathwaite Scores of public service vehicle (PSV) operators are worried that the implementation of a cashless system could cause a shake-up in the transportation sector and lead to mass layoffs. However, the chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport (AOPT) Roy Raphael is assuring them that the system will not be introduced willy-nilly and every effort is being made to protect labour, even as he suggested a possible increase in fares. Last week, the state-owned Transport Board announced that it was going to roll out the cashless system in August with the intention to expand it to privately owned PSVs after. Raphael had also told Barbados TODAY that the AOPT intended to implement the cashless system within their own operations to make operators less of a target for robbers. However, several PSV operators subsequently reached out to Barbados TODAY saying they felt uneasy about the plan. They said they were concerned that this system would put hundreds of jobs at stake and they were also confused about how they would go about their daily operations when they still needed physical cash for some transactions. “It is utter nonsense,” said Sheridan Carrington when Barbados TODAY visited the Constitution River Terminal on Monday. “Cashless putting all the conductors out of work. When you put them out of work, look at the kind of people that conduct vans; not judging anyone but they may not have anything to fall back on. Cashless will not stop crime either. Criminals get more intelligent so it is a waste of time.” His colleague, Martin Sealy, added: “It is bare foolishness. When you put that in a van you will put everybody out of work. Then, with the system, you have to wait on the Government to get money and the Government won’t pay you the same day as we are usually paid.” As far as Maynard Paul is concerned, this is “not a good thing right now”. “We would have to sit down and have a very long discussion about it because we are accustomed to cash in our hands and getting paid in cash when we done work,” he said. Paul also agreed that the cashless system would not necessarily lead to a reduction in crime as “gunmen gine still wanna shoot you for not having the money”. Other operators, who spoke on condition of anonymity, complained they needed cash to pay for diesel at gas stations. He questioned when they would be paid, what system would be used to pay them, and if this system was just a “smart” way for the Government to track how much money owners were making so they could tax their earnings as well as those of PSV operators. The workers also said they were upset with AOPT as Raphael did not have any dialogue with them pertaining to the proposed cashless system. “Roy Raphael got to come inside the van stand and speak to the gents cause he with this behind doors thing all the time and we can’t deal with this anymore,” said Carrington, as his colleagues nodded in agreement. However, Raphael said he had planned to meet with the workers to assure them that “conductors are not displaced”. He said the cashless system will take a while before it is fully operational and even then commuters will have the option of cash or card. While he said commuters travelling on Transport Board will use their ID cards to pay fares, the AOPT chairman said PSV owners were in dialogue with a company to introduce a payment card. “Conductors play an important role; they lower the risk factors in terms of robberies. If you have one onboard, the chances of getting robbed are very minimal, more so than if drivers work by themselves. So they can rest assured that we will meet with them,” he said. “Right now we are only doing a pilot project on one or two vehicles so it is not widespread. We just want to get some data to see how it is going to work and we understand it is not going to work immediately. If we take cash from the vans altogether we are going to lose conductors, drivers and passengers as well and it won’t be good for business. So they have the assurance from me that we are going to tread very carefully.” Raphael added, however, that if the Government passes legislation to make the system mandatory, the AOPT would not have control in the matter. He added that the system will also impact fares and an increase will be likely, as financial institutions usually attach a fee for the use of card machines and that cost would be passed onto commuters. Raphael said fares could increase by $1 or $1.50. There are more than 800 registered PSVs and there are close to 300 registered operators, which include conductors and drivers. sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb]]>