Bus drivers in need: Working conditions cause great dissatisfaction!

Bus drivers in need: Working conditions cause great dissatisfaction!

Niederösterreich, Österreich - The working conditions of the bus drivers in Lower Austria are currently very criticized. According to the Vida Union, drivers often have to work under unreasonable conditions: there are no common rooms to warm up and no way to use a toilet. Thomas Stiller, the chairman of the Vida in Lower Austria, complains that the drivers often have to spend their breaks in nature or in remote places. The situation is even worse for bus drivers. The time pressure is enormous because the handlebars are in use for up to 15 hours a day without the opportunity to design their timetable themselves. The prescribed breaks are deducted from the service, which leads to additional stress, reports noe.orf.at .

In addition, the profession of bus driver has been declared a shortage of a shortage category, which makes it possible to also employ foreign workers without an EU background. Horst Pammer, state chairman of the VIDA, has a sharp criticism of this regulation: He accuses the politicians and bus companies to get dear drivers from Bangladesh instead of creating a fair work environment for local employees. However, the Chamber of Commerce rejects the allegations of wage dumping and argues that there have already been improvements. Stiller contradicts this representation. It states that despite their qualifications and experience, many drivers often only earn between 2,000 and 2,200 euros, which is far below the official entry salary of 2,850 euros net, as communicates by the Chamber of Commerce. The VIDA therefore calls for a wage increase of 3.7 percent and surcharges for nightly and Sunday services. If the next round of negotiation ends in mid -February without agreement, the bus drivers could consider the strike, as Stiller mentioned, and emphasize that they love their profession, but need fair conditions in order to continue to work passionately, as well as vorarlberg.at reported.