Population criteria for taxis again under discussion

The policy of the new infrastructure minister Makis Voridis, both on the front of the taxis and concerning redundancies, the non-implementation of which he openly advocates for the transport and civil aviation sectors, creates problems in the memorandum policy of the government.

Voridis argues that the transfers have stripped transportation bare and he places emphasis on the negative impact created, arguing that the horizontal measures are not rational.

It is the same message he conveyed at the meeting - today, Tuesday - with representatives of workers in transportation and the ND head of the transport sector Michael Papadopoulos.

"We may dismiss 450 drivers and 5 administrators. This is not rational," the minister said, arguing that "the driver and controller cannot be transferred or trained immediately".

According to him, apart from the obvious implications horizontal implementation has for employees, there is a danger of losing transportation projects and revenues. "Therefore, there must be some interference. Now, what form this corrective action will take is something that will be discussed at government level."

Voridis has shown his disposition since his early days in the ministry, leaving a possibility open for introducing population criteria to the deregulation of the taxi proffesion. Currently, his words are measured, as he avoids fully revealing his hand on a difficult issue for the previous government.

But the statements on redundancy are comforting for the thousands of employees who have escalated their protests during the last months.

Meanwhile, there seems to be complete accord with ND on the issues of transport. In the meeting between the infrastructure minister and Papadopoulos, the ND head of sector agreed that the transfers carried out ​​in public transport do not allow room for redundancy, while for taxis he repeated that the deregulation of professions must be done based on certain criteria and conditions.