Barcelona transport drivers reach preliminary agreement on working time directive

Following a series of intermittent strikes, drivers at Barcelona’s Metropolitan Transport Company reached a preliminary agreement in April 2008 on the application of weekly rest periods, as laid down in the EU working time directive. The agreement meets the workers’ demand to be entitled to two days of rest a week, in return for a reduction in working days of 26 days a year.

On 15 April 2008, a mass meeting of drivers at Barcelona’s Metropolitan Transport Company (Transports Metropolitans de Barcelona, TMB) ratified a preliminary agreement on the application of weekly rest periods. The agreement had been signed by: CGT Autobusos, affiliated to the General Confederation of Labour (Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT), the Association of Urban Transport Drivers of Barcelona (Asociación de Conductores de Transportes Urbanos de Barcelona, ACTUB), and the transport sections of the Trade Union Confederation of Workers’ Commissions (Confederación Sindical Comisiones Obreras, CC.OO) and the General Workers’ Confederation (Unión General de Trabajadores, UGT).

Strike action suspended

The agreement with the company led to the suspension of indefinite strike action, which was due to begin on the following day, following 18 days of intermittent strikes beginning in November 2007. The main reason for the strike action was the demand for the right to two days of rest a week, as laid down in Royal Decree 902/2007, which transposed into Spanish law EU Directive 2002/15/EC on the organisation of the working time of persons performing mobile road transport activities.

Provisions of preliminary agreement

The preliminary agreement reached with TMB meets the main demands of the workers. It provides for the inclusion of the terms of the Royal Decree in the bargaining of the next collective agreement and the redefinition of the system of rest periods in the company. Accordingly, the two weekly days’ rest will be granted in return for the annual reduction of working days from the current 251 days to 225 days a year – amounting to a reduction of 26 working days. Furthermore, until the new system is agreed, the drivers will accumulate 25 minutes of rest for each working day. The way in which this pooling of hours will be used through days off or monetary compensation will be decided by the bargaining commission of the agreement.

Hours of presence to be counted as working time

In the original proposal of the trade unions, the application of the Royal Decree to the drivers employed by TMB involved a reduction in working time resulting from the elimination of the annual ‘hours of presence’ and their inclusion in the effective working time. Hours of presence comprise the normal pauses and rests during which the employee is not performing driving activities but must be available to attend to emergencies and other job-related instructions. According to the Spanish law transposing the European directive on working time, hours of presence should be counted entirely as effective working time.

Reduced working time

This reduction in working time will be used to grant the workers two days’ rest a week. To cover the remaining working time, the company will have to recruit new workers. The Royal Decree also establishes a 30-minute period of rest during working time, to which the workers are not currently entitled.

Conflict over calculation of rest periods

The position of the company has varied over the course of the dispute and has been greatly influenced by the scale of the protest action, which was supported by many segments of society in Barcelona. Initially, the company claimed that the two weekly days of rest were already included in the collective agreement that has been in force since 2005. However, the trade unions refuted this claim, stating that the company had included holidays and public holidays in the calculation of annual rest periods. Later, the management agreed to discuss the application of the Royal Decree in the framework of renegotiating the company agreement.

The company’s proposal involved redistributing working time to allow for the two days’ rest each week, by increasing daily working time or deducting an equivalent part of the salary. The trade unions, on the other hand, called for a reduction in working time without loss of pay. During the bargaining of the current agreement, most TMB drivers had already expressed their opposition to the company’s proposal in a ballot called by CGT, the trade union with the greatest number of delegates. Nevertheless, the agreement was ratified by representatives of CC.OO, UGT and the Independent Transport Trade Union (Sindicato Independiente de Transportes, SIT), which together had a majority on the workers’ committee. This acceptance of the current agreement, despite the opposition of the majority of the workers, was one of the central reasons behind the dispute.

Commentary

The dispute at TMB shows the increasing tension and competition that has arisen between different organisations and models of trade union action. The intensity of the workers’ protests led the trade unions CC.OO and UGT to come out against the strikes and call for negotiations with the company. CGT and ACTUB, the trade unions that were most committed to the protest action, fostered the setting up of the Rest Committee (Comité de Descansos), which was open to the whole workforce. This committee, which was responsible for implementing the decisions taken at the mass meetings, took a greater lead in the dispute than the trade unions and the workers’ committee and received many expressions of solidarity from social movements, user groups, students and neighbouring associations of the city of Barcelona.

Juan Arasanz Díaz, QUIT, University Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB)