Unpaid in March, employees of Expotrans, a school transport company for disabled children, exercise their right of withdrawal

Employees of Expotrans, a company responsible for school transport for children with disabilities in Mayenne, have still not received their salaries for the month of March, France Bleu Mayenne reported Thursday, April 25. Drivers have been exercising their right of withdrawal for more than a week.

The company has been mandated by the Pays de la Loire region for two years to transport children with disabilities. More than 550 children are transported daily on 42 circuits. The company employs around forty people. In previous months, the drivers had already been paid late, underlines France Bleu Mayenne. Last Thursday, around thirty drivers demonstrated in Laval.

“We were thrown into the den of the wolf”

“I have two euros left in my account”, worries to France Bleu Julien Le Cornec, the company’s representative in Mayenne, who accuses the region. “They are the ones who chose Expotrans, they are the ones who chose low cost. This is the result.” He and his wife are both employees of Expotrans and expect a salary of nearly 4,000 euros. “I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”

Beyond the unpaid salary, employees assure that they do not receive complementary health insurance either, because Expotrans has never taken out company mutual insurance for its employees. Danielle Cottier, for example, had to pay 880 euros for her new glasses. “I proposed to start a hunger strike so that we could be heard. I have been working in school transport for twenty-four years, I have never seen that. We were thrown in the face the wolf’s.”

For more than a week, employees have decided to exercise their right of withdrawal. They contacted a lawyer and hope to have the Expotrans company convicted before the industrial tribunal. An online fundraiser has been created to help them.