84% oppose bus fare hikes for higher driver wages: Poll

Yahoo! News Singapore, 11 Dec 2012
Would you pay more in bus fares so that transport operators can pay their bus drivers higher salaries?
An overwhelming 84 per cent of more than 3,000 Yahoo! Singapore readers who participated in its poll on the topic said they would not, believing that transport companies should absorb the resulting increase in costs.
A significant majority of more than 120 comments posted on Yahoo! Singapore’s Facebook page also clamoured for bus operators SMRT and SBS Transit to restructure their organisations, or cut the pay of their senior executives in order to compensate the increase in their bus drivers’ salaries.
“Cut management bonuses and shareholders’ dividends,” wrote Facebook user Mark Chan. “Why should a small minority benefit at the expense of the public and the hundreds of drivers who perform an essential public service?
Still others pointed out that the provision of public transport should not yield the levels of profit that SBS Transit and SMRT currently enjoy. The former earned a full-year net profit of S$235.6 million last year, while the latter’s was S$119.9 million. Full story

Related:
A “fair” hike to increase SMRT bus drivers’ wages? - The Online Citizen