Traffic resumed normally this morning at Tec Liège-Verviers. Yesterday, a spontaneous strike action broke out at the Robermont depot, the largest in Wallonia. Nearly 50 lines were impacted. The reason for this dissatisfaction is a technical problem which has been affecting the dispatching service for several weeks. According to the drivers, it compromises their safety because those responsible for this dispatching can no longer be reached as easily and the buses can no longer be located. However, this service is essential for transmitting distress calls in the event of incidents or attacks on drivers, which unfortunately happens regularly. Just last Thursday a driver was punched in the face and earlier this week a bus window was shattered.
“We understand the fears expressed by some drivers“, underlines Isabelle Tasset, spokesperson for Tec Liège-Verviers. “We were indeed able to observe that certain distress calls did not seem to be transmitted urgently to dispatch but were reported as normal calls. The technical teams began directly analyzing these bugs and these problematic cases. In the meantime, a temporary procedure has been put in place so that drivers can quickly contact dispatching in the event of a problem. The discussions which took place yesterday with the unions were constructive and enabled this resumption of work“. The management of Tec Liège-Verviers, however, regrets that yesterday’s movement was carried out without notice, which penalized customers.
Last January, Tec Liège-Verviers drivers had already gone on strike for several days to demand better safety conditions.
Belgium
