In an uncompromising message published on its Facebook page on Wednesday, the Lithuanian Carriers Trade Union (Lietuvos vežėjų profesinė sąjunga, LVPS) said:
“The transport sector is shouting loudly that Ukrainians went to defend their homeland and that there is no one left to work. Yes, there’s a shortage of drivers, but is the sector doing even a little bit to keep the existing employees? NOPE!”
The organisation added that it has been receiving requests from drivers of road transport companies regarding unpaid salaries “every day”.
LVPS then went on to explain how it had had to go all the way to court before their member was able to receive the money he was due.
According to the Lithuanian Carriers Trade Union, when this particular case was addressed by Lithuania’s Labour Disputes Commission, the driver’s employer submitted documents showing an invoice of 590,00 EUR from the Linava (Lithuania’s haulage association) Training Center for training. This fee was deducted from the trucker’s pay.
However, when the union asked the driver about the invoices and the training, he and five other colleagues said they had received no training whatsoever – either in person or online.
LVPS then reached out to a journalist from the Delfi website, who investigated the matter further by interviewing Lithuania’s Ministry of Education and Science, company employees and Linava Training Center.
The latter said that it had not written any such invoices, while the driver’s employer refused to comment. According to LVPS, Lithuania’s Labour Dispute Commission also refused to evaluate whether the documents were forged or not.
The union didn’t give up though, and brought the matter to court, where all the witnesses were summoned. The court was presented with the aforementioned invoice, and only then did the road transport firm admit that there had been “a mistake”. The money owed to the driver was transferred to his account immediately.
Although the union ultimately won the case, it expressed deep concern that that they had had to take the matter to court due to inaction from the country’s governing authorities. In addition, LVPS stressed that even though the haulier had admitted its invoices were fake, it went unpunished.
Photo: DreferComm, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
