Bus drivers and Mettis are missing in the agglomeration of Metz. This is a point on which the management of the Met’ and the unions are in agreement. Difficulties that have forced, since Monday June 20 and for the next three weeks, the company to reduce its service, with more spaced intervals on certain lines. But the versions diverge and are radically opposed on the causes of this shortage which affects Metz like a major part of the urban public transport networks.
Management’s efforts…
“The absenteeism rate in addition to the enormous difficulties of recruitment prevent me from continuing to do the service” deplores the director of the Met’, Franck Duval who believes that there is a lack between “15 to 20 drivers” to function properly, “I’ve been pulling the strings for months and months by cutting holidays, making drivers do a lot of overtime and there, I’m reaching the limits, otherwise it’s going to be counterproductive.” The transport plan has already experienced such reductions during the period of health crisis. However, while the situation has returned to almost normal, the difficulties persist. “Before the crisis, it was quite easy to find receiving drivers. It’s a job that also has constraints: working early, working late on Saturdays… Nevertheless, we found them. Today, we no longer find them” continues Franck Duval who compares his situation to that experienced by hospitals and many companies looking for labour. The director nevertheless believes that he is making efforts in terms of remuneration and benefits to attract new candidates. “A receiving driver, with one year’s seniority, earns €2,600 per month over twelve months, plus a 13th month, plus a holiday bonus, plus a presenteeism bonus, plus restaurant tickets, plus the mutual share of the employer.” The Met’ also does everything to go ahead of the candidates. “We try all possible formulas: apprenticeship, professional titles, temporary workers, fixed-term contracts, permanent contracts of course… We recruit even without a public transport permit, and we have set up a training center in which we take trainees, we finance the training” exposes Franck Duval.
…contested by the unions
But the figures put forward by the management make the unions jump, which strongly contest them : several employees have contacted France Bleu Lorraine to submit their pay slips. These 2,600 euros correspond, according to them, to the overall gross remuneration including bonuses. They also point to working conditions of network drivers as the main explanation for this disaffection. Frédéric Jager, CGT delegate of the Tamm (transport of the Messina agglomeration) is formal : “For reasons of productivity, we have stopped degrading working conditions. People are getting tired, sick, resigning. It’s a job that no longer attracts.” The staff representative points to the increase in the workload of the drivers who start earlier and later and finish later and later, “without financial compensation.” Fréderic Jager is therefore not surprised by the current situation, recalling that he “Ringing the alarm bell for at least five years.” Measures must therefore be taken “strong and immediate”, “how to raise wages” or establish “a real half-hour break in the middle of the service.”