Social Conditions in UPT Country Reports EN 2MB
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Social Conditions in Urban Public Transport Companies in Europe Annexes – Country Reports With financial support of the European Union This page is intentionally blank Social Conditions in Urban Public Transport Companies in Europe Annexes – country reports A report submitted by ICF Consulting Services Date: 14 July 2016 ICF Consulting Services Limited 5em Etage 146 Rue Royale Brussels B-1000 T +32 (0) 2 275 01 00 F +32 (0) 2 275 01 09 [email protected] www.icfi.com i Contents Annex 1 Austria ...................................................................................................... 4 Annex 2 Belgium .................................................................................................. 14 Annex 3 Bulgaria .................................................................................................. 26 Annex 4 Czech Republic ........................................................................................ 40 Annex 5 Germany ................................................................................................. 53 Annex 6 Finland .................................................................................................... 70 Annex 7 France ..................................................................................................... 81 Annex 8 Ireland .................................................................................................... 81 Annex 9 Netherlands ........................................................................................... 109 Annex 10 Italy ....................................................................................................... 122 Annex 11 Sweden .................................................................................................. 130 Annex 12 UK .......................................................................................................... 139 ii ANNEXES 3 Annex 1 Austria Background Market organisation of urban public transport Institutional organisation The law on the organisation of local public transport (ÖPNRV law from 1999)1 stipulates that in principal it is the Federal State (Ministry for Transport) that plans and organises and provides for the financial base of railway services and urban public transport services (finances to the extent of the timetable 1999/2000). All additional transport requests however are planned by the federal states and their counties depending on the demand. The cities own in most cases the urban transport operator. The regional transport association (Verkehrsverbund) generally manages and finances the federal urban transport. They are owned by the federal states. In practice however, the planning of urban/ local public transport is carried out in coordination between the federal level and the federal states. Thus in this rather complex institutional organisational setting it has been criticised that the voice of smaller cities and rural areas is under represented. It was anticipated by some scholars that the financing of urban transport will become a challenge for some regions and may become a burden. A recent analysis of 2013 shows that in particular cities (with more than 50.000 inhabitants) have issues to provide the finances for urban public transport. 2 It seems in particular that the operational costs of public transport exceed the income from the transport provided (this is not including Vienna). The following figure shows the organisation of the regional transport associations. In total there are 7 such associations since 2016 (the figure below shows 8 – since 2003 it was planned that VOR and VVNB become one association). 1 Link to the OPRNV law : https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/GeltendeFassung.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=20000097 2 Centre for Research in Public Administration –provides several studies on this aspect – see the latest presentation – accessed 27 Oct. 2015 : http://kdz.eu/sites/default/files/documents/kdz/news/PDF%20Attachment/13_06/03_KDZ_K%C3%B6fel_%C3%96 PNV-Finanzierung%20in%20%C3%96sterreichs%20St%C3%A4dten.pdf 4 Figure 1.1 Regional Transport Associations in Austria Regional transport associations in Austria (Verkehrsverbünde) Source: VOB The regional transport associations have also the authority to award contracts. There main task is however to plan transport and determine schedules, follow up on passenger streams, determine ticket prices, carry out quality control and provide for the marketing and communication of the transport in the region. It is rather the cities and municipalities in urban areas that directly award and manage contracts with the operators. As mentioned above there are several on-going discussions among responsible authorities, internal operators and trade unions that the current model of financing of urban public transport does not allow to sustainably finance the needs for urban public transport and to improve the offer and infrastructure. It has created an additional burden of financing for local regions, communities and cities. These increasing concerns on the financial situation may also impact on future contracts in urban public transport. Regulatory framework General regulatory framework urban public transport The most important laws that govern the contracting of urban public transport is the federal law on tendering (Bundesvergabegesetz). In addition, the law on licences for operators of bus services (Kraftfahrlinien Gesetz) and the general law on the organisation of local public transport (ÖPNRV law) are also of importance. The latter law regulates the organisation and financing of local public transport which is partially under the responsibility of the Federal state and partially under responsibility of the federal states. Under Art. 31 of the law on the organisation of local public transport a list of “quality criteria” have been set out when awarding the contract to an operator and that have to be checked. Among these there is the criteria that the operator shall not have committed serious violations of social and labour law provisions. In addition, the “staff and security elements” form part of the quality criteria – referring here to properly qualified staff. There are a number of minimum social criteria that have to be respected by any operator in the urban public transport when applying for a bid. This includes also the application of the sector level collective 5 agreement of the sector. Because a change of operator is not regarded as transfer of staff such an obligation could be inserted by the authority in the tender documents. A recent analysis3 on the use of social criteria in transport bids has been carried out on the demand of the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology. One of the conclusions of this study was that under current AT law there are only a few social criteria. And those that are available are only facultative for the tender call to be observed (checked). In principle the definition of social, quality and security criteria is rather unclear under the current applicable legislation and these criteria are interdependent. Thus it has been recommended by the study to provide a clear definition in a guiding document to provide for more legal clarity. The study also observed that currently subcontracting chains used in transport were taken less into consideration when applying social criteria due to the fact that the principle of the “lowest price” was the applicable selection criteria. 2010 the Austrian social partners (chamber of economy, the biggest bus companies, trade unions, chamber of labour) issued a joint statement demanding legally binding social criteria as well as transfer of staff for competitive tendered bus lines. Up till now, the federal states blocked any change of the respective laws. As a “loop-hole” against this standstill, in April 2015, the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology has provided guidelines on the use of quality criteria in particular social and environmental criteria for bus tenders.4 Similar guidelines exist for transfer of staff but until now they are not published yet. It shall be noted that inter-urban transport is more and more competitively tendered in Austria providing the first examples of tendering experience. In general the regional transport association/city can decide to put out for tendering urban public transport or to continue to contract with the internal operator. In general, subcontracting is foreseen in the contract or is based on a choice by the authority. The operator cannot make a sole decision about subcontracting. In all of the bigger cities (more than 100.000 inhabitants) in Austria urban public transport is directly awarded to the internal operator. The way of award does not change too much in practice and the described example of Wiener Linien below provides a good reference. Overall length of contracts is between 8 to 15 years. The rolling-stock and its maintenance is part of the contract and the operator has to organise for it, whereas bus depots and infrastructure is organised by the city. Competitive tenders (for inter-urban transport and subcontractors) are announced on an internet platform according to the ‘lowest price’ principle. There are certain minimum criteria that have to be met, such as age of the buses, which have to be met in order for a company to be considered. Due to the fact that it is hard to lower the price on fixed costs such as diesel, human capital costs often suffer the most. Thus the trade union (Vida) has started a campaign