DOHA: Many Al Million taxi drivers who were on strike returned to work yesterday. Others have not yet decided to resume work or go home.
The dispute over terms of payment with their employers was resolved in the afternoon.
Drivers who have been working on a ‘daily rental’ basis went on a strike on Saturday in protest against the current system.
They also demanded that the management reduce rentals.
“The issue was resolved in the afternoon after negotiations,” Joby Mathew, Human Resources Manager at Al Million, told this newspaper.
The company has agreed to reduce rentals by QR15 which is less than what was demanded by the drivers.
Although many drivers have returned to work, it’s not clear if others will follow suit or decide to leave the job and return home.
“It’s too early to know if all have agreed to the new rental system. We would know only when operations return to normal on Wednesday (today),” said Mathew.
Al Million, a franchise of Mowasalat, has about 650 taxis with more than 1,000 drivers.
Daily rentals have been reduced to QR220 from QR235 (for 12 hours) and full-day (24 hours) from QR300 to QR285.
A driver who returned to work said they had no option other than settling for lesser reduction.
“The company has only reduced QR15 from daily rentals. But we had asked to reduce them to QR200 and pay for the fuel or fix rentals at QR180 and we bear the petrol expenses,” he said.
“We had also asked QR300 rentals for 24 hours to be reduced to QR250,” he added.
Another driver who has decided to return to work today said, “I have decided to report to work, but some of my colleagues are unable to make a decision either to rejoin or go home.”
The Peninsula
