First warning strike next Thursday

In the late evening hours, no agreement also brought the 4th KV negotiation round for the 12,000 employees at private bus companies. “Today, employers have again not put an substantial improved offer on the table. Our demands for a noticeable improvement in working conditions for the bus drivers: Inside, it is still not taken seriously, ”Anil Zümrüt, KV negotiation head for the VIDA union, is outraged. One could agree on a compensation of the rolling inflation of 3.5 percent. With regard to the working conditions, only marginal, but no real relief measures came on the table. On Thursday, February 20, 2025, a first warning strike will take place at several bases across Austria in the morning hours from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m. “We are sending a clear warning signal towards the employer to finally get back to the negotiating table with a meaningful and acceptable offer,” emphasizes Zümrüt.

“The employer has still been a fashion pack that the handlebars should largely finance themselves,” continued Zümrüt. For example, relief for shared services and breaks would continue to be linked to loss of income. With regard to an expansion of the night surcharge, the employers have not moved at all. The VIDA trade unionist describes the only minimal concessions with the diets.

From 30.1. Until 5.2.2025, the bus drivers have held: Austria -wide operating meetings. On the sidelines of the meetings and online surveys, the employees have spoken out with the majority for union combat measures up to the strike if the employers were to put a fitting pack on the table again at the coming negotiation date.

For two years, the union with the Austria Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ) has had intensive discussions about improved working conditions. These have been continued in four KV negotiating rounds since December, without the employers having any significant responding to the claims for the employees.

Confirmed in their demands for the handlebars: Inside, the union also sees itself through the study results of a survey by the University of Vienna entitled “Bus Lenitor: Inside on the Limit”. Bus steering is fun, but the framework conditions in this work are not correct. The handlebars work many times: inside the border of their stress and beyond, a central result is the study presented in December. The question “What aspects describe your work?” An almost 83 percent answered with “great responsibility” followed by “stress” (45.9 percent), “health burden” (38.3 percent) and “overload” (22.2 percent). Little predictability and difficult compatibility in the division of service currently make the profession not very attractive.