Watch out for disturbances. The transport and logistics federation of the FO union called on Wednesday for a “week of strong actions” from October 17 to 23 in order to demand an improvement in wages and working conditions for employees in this sector very affected by staff shortages.
“The RATP lacks 3,000 employees, including 1,800 bus drivers, more than 3,500 employees in urban transport at the national level, 15,000 bus drivers, including 1,700 schoolchildren”, lists FO in a leaflet for the attention unions and activists from the FO Transports federation.
The union also mentions truck drivers (50,000 vacancies), logistics employees (20,000) and the thousands of seasonal positions for ski lifts and ski areas that do not find takers.
Frequencies slowed down due to lack of personnel
“This has the effect of accentuating the deterioration of working conditions by putting pressure on the remaining employees”, denounces FO Transports. The federation is asking for wage increases when they averaged “2.5 to 3%” in 2022 against inflation peaking “at 6.5%”.
The transport sector is suffering from a serious shortage of personnel which is causing disruptions on certain networks where frequencies have had to be slowed down, such as on the RER C and D in Île-de-France.
In Bordeaux, trams and buses traveled in slow motion during the back-to-school week before a return to normal thanks to overtime and the use of temporary workers. The operation of school bus lines is also disrupted due to the lack of coach drivers.