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The Office of the Gender Equality Commissioner and the Cyprus Licensing Authority welcome the fact that the efforts of all parties involved have been successful and a significant number of women have expressed their willingness to re-enter the road passenger transport sector.
Following meetings, the Office of the Gender Equality Commissioner and the Licensing Authority look forward to the cooperation of all relevant bodies, public services, contractors and municipal authorities to respond to any corrective and improvement measures needed to overcome any obstacles in order to enable the employment of more women drivers.
The road passenger transport sector is central to the planning of sustainable mobility. In this context, the Ministry of Transport has extended the school bus scheme for the 2023-2024 school year, with the aim of covering large urban areas and managing traffic.
One of the major problems that arose was the lack of professional bus drivers. In a male-dominated profession, it was observed that, despite the large number of women holding professional driving licences, the number of those employed in passenger road transport is minimal. In an effort to meet the immediate needs for professional drivers and to create appropriate gender-specific conditions that could potentially result in more women being active in this sector, the Licensing Authority and the Office of the Gender Equality Commissioner have taken an initiative, in cooperation with women professional drivers, the social partners, and in particular with the guilds of the FGC, PEA, DEOC, with the aim of recording and understanding the working conditions and different obstacles that arise for women drivers Some of the issues raised concern the absence of decent sanitary and rest areas and the need to ensure their physical safety on the bus, for example by adding a driver's hood or a protective partition.
The Office of the Gender Equality Commissioner and the Licensing Authority will continue efforts to integrate more women into the profession.
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