Agreement signed for train drivers

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Following lengthy negotiations and industrial action, a new collective agreement for train drivers at Portuguese Railways (CP) was concluded in August 2000.

In early August 2000, negotiations over a new collective agreement resumed between the state-run Portuguese Railways (Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses, CP) and the independent Engine Drivers' Union (Sindicato Nacional dos Maquinistas dos Caminhos de Ferro Portugueses, SMAQ), representing train drivers (PT0004188N). In the negotiations, which originally began in 1998 (PT9902132N), SMAQ sought the following:

• regulations regarding the career paths of train drivers;

• new rules on the organisation of working time, with two consecutive days off per week and a maximum daily working time of 14 hours including meal-breaks of 45 minutes;

• a wage increase for 2000, backdated to February;

• increases in seniority increments, meal subsidies and travel bonuses;

• open-ended employment contracts for 35 new drivers recruited on fixed-term contracts; and

• payment of wages for periods during which drivers were on strike.

CP responded by pointing out that a company-level agreement signed in 1999 by 19 of the trade unions organising in the company, representing 75% of CP's 6,000 workers, is still in force. Negotiations over the working conditions of groups represented by other unions cannot, according to management, be taken out of the context that applies to the rest of the workforce. Furthermore, regulations on career paths in the company should be taken as a whole, with the profession of train driver being seen as an integral part of that whole. The company also sought a "peace commitment" from train drivers until February 2001.

At the start of the latest round of negotiations, SMAQ called strikes for the end of August (a one-and-a-half hour stoppage was held on 25 August) and the beginning of September, a time of heavy tourist traffic and the months when Portuguese emigrants to other EU countries most frequently return home to visit. CP management stated that SMAQ's demands threatened to destabilise the company at a time when privatisation is likely. It also objected to negotiating when a strike had already been called and said that it might ask the government to issue a civil conscription order to prevent the industrial action, as it had done during disputes in early 2000. This earlier order had been lifted at the beginning of August.

During the negotiations, given that CP is state-run, SMAQ held talks with the Ministry of Social Infrastructure and the secretary of state for transport, though negotiations over collective agreements are strictly speaking held with the company's management. The ministerial talks were held in the belief that top-level discussions would provide a more suitable framework for the issues at hand.

The 19 unions organising at CP which are affiliated to the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP) and the General Workers Union (União Geral de Trabalhadores, UGT) publicly commented on the negotiations with the independent SMAQ. They stated that the demands of the CP workforce as a whole require an overall negotiating strategy that does not lose sight of: imminent privatisation; employer pressure to limit the right to strike; the threat of civil conscription; and the growing gap between the terms and conditions negotiated by the other unions and the bonuses and benefits demanded by SMAQ.

Following conciliation involving the services of Institute for the Development and Inspection of Working Conditions (Instituto para o Desenvolvimento e Inspecção das Condições de Trabalho, IDICT), an agreement was finally reached in late August. The deal provides for:

• drivers with fixed-term contracts to received open-ended contracts;

• a 3% wage rise and an increase in bonuses and subsidies, backdated to February; and

• a pledge to continue discussions on career paths.