The 7,000 Spanish machinists known as to strike: how a lot do they earn and what corporations rent them? | Economy | EUROtoday

The prepare accidents in Adamuz (Córdoba) and Gelida (Barcelona) claimed the lives of 47 folks, together with two of the prepare drivers concerned within the accidents. After the deaths, the bulk union of the group, the Semaf, known as a common strike within the sector between Monday and Wednesday of subsequent week to demand that “the integrity of professionals and users” be assured. Other facilities with a presence within the occupation – akin to UGT, CC OO, Sindicato Ferroviario and CGT – have supported the strike, which appeals to round 7,000 prepare drivers. It is an approximate determine as a result of no public report gives precise information on a bunch that, for a number of weeks, has been the main focus of numerous eyes.

A Semaf spokesperson estimates the variety of machinists presently working in Spain at between 7,000 and eight,000. A Renfe prepare driver affiliated with UGT lowers the determine to round 7,000. Salaries differ tremendously relying on the corporate that hires them and the workload, says Semaf. Based on printed labor agreements, a low-ranking machinist earns round 20,000 euros gross per yr, and essentially the most professional one earns round 50,000. To this, we should add the variable wage, calculated on the time behind the wheel, and which quantities to a number of thousand euros per yr.

As a results of the liberalization of the sector, which occurred between 2019 and 2020, along with the historic and state-owned Renfe, high-speed customers should purchase prepare tickets from two different operators: the Italian-Spanish Iryo, from the top of 2022, and the French Ouigo, from 2021. These three corporations, together with different personal corporations devoted solely to the transport of products, are combating for the hiring of prepare drivers. The demand for these professionals, based on UGT, has not stopped rising lately.

In 2023, 90% of the group had been Renfe workers, reported the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC). It additionally identified that, that very same yr, nearly a 3rd of the machinists employed by the opposite operators went to work for the Spanish firm.

That flight of pros led the CNMC to take measures. And since then, Renfe is obliged to tell its opponents of the variety of prepare drivers it plans to rent not less than a month and a half earlier than resolving a range course of. The measure seeks to make sure that Ouigo and Iryo discover replacements with ample discover as a result of “call effect” of Renfe’s public employment calls. An influence of attraction that’s defined above all by working circumstances.

Salary variations

Starting with salaries. In the newest Renfe collective settlement, printed in a BOE of July 2023, the wage tables of the 5,600 civil servant prepare drivers are illustrated, based on estimates by UGT, wherein the corporate is 100% owned by the State. There are seven ranges of remuneration. In the queue, the “entry driver”, with a base wage of 20,407 euros and a complement of virtually 1,200. At the highest, the “chief machinist level A”, who earns 46,652 euros per yr and a complement of greater than 8,000. To climb from the final to the primary rank, it takes round seven years, says the union.

An extra column stories the 15 euros per day in per diems and one other desk explains how the variable premium is calculated: every minute pushed is multiplied by a value stipulated in a desk and the result’s adjusted with the so-called “correction coefficient”. Of course, not all minutes are price the identical. For instance, the primary 30,000 minutes are paid at 0.19 euros and, from 55,001, at 0.24 euros. Additionally, time driving medium-distance trains will not be charged the identical as time driving a high-speed prepare or one which transports items.

On the personal facet, Iryo and Ouigo introduced, in June 2024, two days aside, the signing of separate agreements with their employees. In Iryo there are 4 ranges of machinists. The highest rating, “responsible for machinists”, earns 48,000 euros per yr; and the youngest, 19,865. Also, as in Renfe, they’ve a variable that relies on the minutes pushed. At Ouigo, the tables vary from a base wage of twenty-two,000 euros gross per yr for trainee machinists, to 45,900 euros for senior machinists. To this are added some bonuses akin to lengthy shift, night time shifts or holidays.

But there are different issues apart from cash. A consultant of the Railway Union explains that the Spanish public firm, by working routes all through the nationwide territory, provides its workers the opportunity of working within the locations they like. In addition, it means that you can select between, for instance, driving a Cercanías or a High Speed ​​prepare. Territorial mobility or the choice to differ the service are benefits that non-public ones, targeted solely on excessive passenger pace, can’t provide. “The natural evolution of every person who enters the railway sector is to take an exam at Renfe,” the union spokesperson says on the telephone.

This signifies that, though Ouigo and Iryo have caught up with Renfe’s financial circumstances, the decision impact that the CNMC spoke of continues to happen. The UGT-affiliated prepare driver clarifies that this occurs “to a lesser extent” than earlier than and is dedicated, as an answer, to the signing of an settlement that brings collectively the complete railway sector, whatever the firm for which every worker works.

Oppositions, license and programs for machinist

Another distinction between personal and public corporations is hiring. Renfe drivers get their place by passing an examination and the remaining after passing a private interview. All of them, nonetheless, will need to have beforehand handed the machinist examination of the State Railway Safety Agency, which is held three or 4 instances a yr.

To take the check, the applicant should full the coaching program in one of many 18 facilities permitted by the identical company. The value of the course, which lasts one yr, exceeds 20,000 euros. The one supplied by a middle related to Renfe prices 21,200, based on its web site. Given the rise in demand from professionals, in current instances the availability of colleges and the variety of college students who enroll have additionally elevated. According to UGT, this has triggered a pool of machinists who, after acquiring their license, can’t discover work.

Those who do get a job, whether or not within the personal or public sector, begin working with a coaching contract. Its length, explains one of many faculties, is normally longer in Renfe than in different corporations as a result of professionals are educated in a better variety of strains and autos. Furthermore, they emphasize, on this interval the particularities of the safety techniques of every route, every sort of prepare and every firm are taught.