DIPLOMATS have vowed to intervene amid claims that more than 50 Indian bus drivers have lost their jobs.

The men claim they were involved in an overtime dispute with Bahrain Public Transport Company (BPTC), which resulted in their subsequent dismissal.

“We were hired on conditions that we will have to work for eight hours and will be paid overtime for additional hours,” said Nizar Kassim, one of the drivers who claimed to be awaiting deportation at Bahrain International Airport last night.

“But our working hours were 12 to 14 hours and during the shift breaks we were made to sit in bus shelters even in the rain and dust.

“All that we were paid was our basic pay of BD160.”

BPTC is a joint venture between the UK-based National Express Group and Ahmed Mansoor Al A’ali Group that started operating on February 15.

In December last year, it used a recruitment company called “Sinclus” in Kochi, India, to hire around 120 drivers, Mr Kassim told the GDN.

He claimed that following the overtime dispute on Monday seven workers’ representatives were deported and others were leaving yesterday.

Licences

All air fare and visa charges were then allegedly deducted from the men’s final salaries.

“We don’t even have money to get to our houses from the airport,” said another of the drivers, Arun S B.

“We were told that our GCC licences were valid in Bahrain, but we were taken for a driving test and issued a licence to drive BPTC buses only valid for a year.

“Many of our licences got cancelled and now we are not sure if we would be banned from entering any GCC
country.

“We don’t want this to happen to the remaining drivers here.”

Indian Embassy first secretary Ram Singh said that they had not been notified soon enough of the dispute to intervene, but pledged to fight a legal case on the drivers’ behalf.

“We were not contacted earlier and now they are already leaving,” he said.

“But what we could do is to get a power of attorney from them and file a legal case here.”

Despite repeated attempts yesterday no one from BPTC could be reached for comment.

A Transportation and Telecommunications Ministry official told the GDN that the drivers were employed by the BPTC and that the ministry was not involved.

raji@gdn.com.bh