Eleuthera bus drivers terminated

A handful of bus drivers on Eleuthera received termination letters Thursday which rendered their services unnecessary as of the second week in December, according to sources.

Central Eleuthera bus driver Ricardo Pinder told Eyewitness News Thursday that the termination letters came as a huge surprise.

“I got the letter this morning that as of Dec 12, that our contract is finished,” he said.

“They didn’t bother calling a meeting with us. The island administrator called for me to come to his office. When I got there, he gave me a letter and when I opened the letter it said that my services would no longer be needed as of December.”

The drama between the bus drivers on Eleuthera and Ministry of Education officials dates back to early September.

Bus drivers in Central Eleuthera staged a protest at the start of the new school semester after the government had fallen behind on it payments to the drivers.

The drivers told EWN that government had not paid them since the culmination of the 2017 school semester.

The transportation operators decided to stage a protest to grab the government’s attention and refused to return to work until they were paid.

The government responded their actions within 24 hours and all back-payments were paid to the bus drivers.

Five months later, Pinder said the government has pulled the plug on contracts which have been in place for over 20 years.

“I don’t know what the problem is. Everything was going smooth until we got these letters today,” he said.

“Five bus drivers in Central Eleuthera got termination letters today and I also heard that one of my friends in North Eleuthera got the same letter.”

Eyewitness News attempted to contact Ministry of Education officials Thursday afternoon to determine why the decades’ old contracts had been terminated.

Attempts to secure comment from education officials were unsuccessful up to press time.

About Theo Sealy

Theo Sealy is an award-winning journalist who serves as senior broadcast reporter and weekend TV news anchor at Eyewitness News. He has achieved several career milestones, including his work as a field contributor with CNN, his coverage of four consecutive general elections, his production of several docuseries and his Bahamas Press Club Awards win for “Best Television News Story” in 2018.