Bus transport agrees to request early retirement for its drivers with the brand new route opened by the Government | Economy | EUROtoday

Bus drivers, each city and long-distance, are one step nearer to early retirement as a result of hardship of their job, if Social Security considers that the amount of sick go away and accidents they endure justifies it. The CC OO and UGT unions and the Confebus employers’ affiliation have agreed this Friday on the doc requesting discount coefficients within the sector. The different consultant employers’ affiliation that has participated within the negotiations, ATUC, lastly doesn’t take part within the petition. According to Confebus, there are round 95,000 drivers devoted to passenger transport in Spain, with a mean age near 50 years. The lowering coefficients make a interval of contributions in a extremely bodily demanding exercise (amongst different hardship components) depend as an extended time, so that you simply entry retirement sooner.

The representatives of the employees and employers have agreed to request the Social Security’s early withdrawal, which can have six months from the day on which the pc registration of the request is made to reply. This is the second main request for lowering coefficients with the brand new highway activated by the Government, after the development registered its personal in mid-July. That of the bus drivers enters with much more drive, because it comes with employer assist, whereas that of the employees solely has assist from the unions.

The Government agreed with CC OO, UGT, CEOE and Cepyme to develop a brand new approach to entry discount coefficients, in order that they’re granted to occupations with the bottom, longest and highest accident charges. That is, objectify a course of that some voices in social dialogue had been classifying as “arbitrary.” There are already very troublesome jobs which have these coefficients, akin to miners or sailors, however many others don’t take pleasure in them regardless of the excessive mortality and morbidity information they current.

This is the case of bus drivers, who now see not less than the request to the ministry by enterprise and union representatives happy. This Friday the settlement was finalized, however there was already a dedication from the employers to achieve this vacation spot: in November of final 12 months the enterprise associations agreed with the unions on the joint request for coefficients to deactivate a number of days of strike.

Francisco Vega, basic secretary of the Road and Logistics sector at CC OO, celebrates the settlement: “It is a very important step that we have been demanding historically. This can be a before and after for many people, for many drivers who in the last years of their career have a very bad time.” It emphasizes that the ultimate determination corresponds to the Government, particularly to the General Directorate of Social Security, after the research of a crew of consultants from the Government and which additionally consists of unions and employers.

This analysis committee ought to already be in place in keeping with the deadlines introduced within the decree, however it has not but been activated. However, Elma Saiz’s ministry emphasizes that this doesn’t delay any course of. CC OO, within the assertion saying the settlement, makes one other studying and warns that “the processing of the application by Social Security does not begin until the evaluation commission is created.”

The federal secretary of Highways of UGT, Diego Buenestado, calls for that Social Security comply with the request “to do justice to workers who suffer many health problems,” particularly musculoskeletal issues. Vega believes that if the coefficients are finalized, they’ll make “the profession more attractive,” given the shortage of labor that employers complain about. At the identical time, it highlights the significance of the principle passenger transport employers’ affiliation collaborating within the settlement, regardless of the rise in the price of contributions that the measure implies. The massive employers’ associations, CEOE and Cepyme, additionally supported this instrument, which has not prevented different sector associations from rejecting it. This is the case of the National Construction Confederation, which has not accompanied UGT and CC OO within the request for coefficients.

“The unions do not negotiate the amount of the coefficient or the additional contribution, this will be set by the Government in a Royal Decree if it estimates the request based on IT data [incapacidades temporales]mortality and morbidity of each occupation,” says CC OO in a statement.

Waiting on merchandise

The employers’ associations of freight transport, such as those of passengers, also committed to supporting the reduction coefficients to achieve the calling of strikes last year. The unions say that at the moment they have not reached an agreement on the matter with the business associations, but that they hope to achieve it soon. “It is a clamor throughout the sector. It can’t be that 65-year-old persons are driving a truck with the implications that this has by way of security,” adds Buenestado. Transportation was the sector that recorded the most deaths due to work accidents during the day throughout 2024. Provisional data for 2025 place it in second place, after construction.

Social Security has been insisting that the coefficients will solely be permitted if the hardship of the exercise can’t be compensated with measures to adapt the job. The ministry’s warning has the backdrop of a pension system beneath monumental stress, with advantages which might be more and more larger (as a result of higher salaries of those that retire and the restoration of revaluation with the CPI) and extra quite a few (as a result of retirement of the era of the child growth). Hence, the regulation establishes that the impression of the coefficients should be impartial, that’s, that there’s a adequate extra contribution to compensate for the rise in the price of these folks retiring earlier.