Govt, truck drivers strike new agreement

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The Government and truck drivers have reached a new agreement as the government seeks to end the truck drivers’ strike.

A member of the truck drivers association signs the agreeement

Truck Drivers Association of Malawi and the government officials met on Wednesday at the Ministry of Transport offices where the deal was reached.

The new agreement includes a K100 000 monthly minimum pay for drivers of dry cargo in above 30 tonne trucks.

On Tuesday, the two parties also had an agreement in which government set a minimum salary of K60,000 for ordinary truck drivers and K140,000 for fuel tanker drivers.

However, drivers rejected the Tuesday agreement and threatened to continue the industrial action if their demands were not met.

This forced the drivers’ representatives to go back to the negotiating table with government where the new deal was reached and the drivers promised to end the strike.

The truck drivers started their strike on Monday when over 500 drivers across Malawi parked their trucks and forced their fellow drivers to join the industrial action.

The strike led to scarcity of fuel on Wednesday since the drivers were stopping fuel tankers from delivering fuel to various areas.

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