Truck and bus drivers have demanded that the government intervenes and force their employers to remit their National Social Security Fund (NSSF) savings. The drivers say their bosses have over the years remained adamant on remitting their NSSF and yet once they clock the age of 60 they are retired to nothing.
Yunus Kiggundu the Chairman of United Bus Drivers Association (UBDA) said many of their colleagues have retired after reaching 60 years but they literally have nothing to sustain their lives after they were ditched over age. Kiggundu asked the ministry of works and transport that licenses bus companies to draft contracts which every transport company must abide to whenever they are hiring drivers so that they can be saved from exploitation.
The drivers were speaking at the ongoing activities to mark the World Day of Remembrance (WDOR) for Traffic Victims. WDOR activities go up to December as different countries, CSOs and all persons involved in transport sector remember victims of traffic crashes. In Uganda, traffic crashes now claim over 13 people per day and also leave 46 nursing life threatening injuries every day.
Racheal Lwanga Percy, a truck driver said many times employers hire them on short term contracts and they keep renewing them whenever they wish. The purpose of short term contracts is to ensure that drivers do not demand for NSSF and sometimes they are paid per delivered trip or journey.
Lwanga also demanded that there should general guidelines for bus and truck owners to follow whenever they are recruiting drivers and other staff so that it can stop being casual employment. Also, Lwanga decried errant drivers who have tarnished their job by causing avoidable road crashes.
Kiggundu and Lwanga have reached to the extent of demanding that they should be represented in parliament like other groups so that their voices can be heard on the floor of the August House. “If our voices cannot be heard by the government, let us be represented in parliament. We need to be saved from exploitation. We need our retirement packages. We cannot keep retiring to nothing after driving these buses or trucks for 20 or 30 years,” Lwanga said.
Kiggundu also requested the ministry of works and transport to remove the 60 years restriction on bus drivers so that they can continue chauffeuring passengers. However, Winstone Katushabe, the commissioner for transport regulation and licensing advised Kiggundu to utilize other government programs such as Myooga and PDM to invest in economic activities as a way of managing life after retiring from bus driving.