Bus drivers protest against lack of toilets with outhouse
With an outhouse at Vienna's Westbahnhof, bus drivers, trade unionists and climate activists denounced the lack of toilets for employees.
Protest
There is a serious shortage of bus drivers in public transport. Due to the poor working conditions, more and more bus drivers are leaving the industry, thousands are already missing, criticized the trade union vida, the climate movement and bus drivers with their alliance "Wir-Fahren-Gemeinsam" today, Wednesday, July 17, 2024, as part of an action in front of Vienna's Westbahnhof.
Needs fall by the wayside
The activists strikingly staged their criticism, which today was directed at the Verkehrsverbund Ost-Region (VOR), with the construction of an outhouse. "In the VOR's 2020 tender for public transport, sanitary facilities are simply not mentioned; they are not a criterion. Companies then act as if it is not their job to have to provide social spaces. The bus drivers fall by the wayside with their human needs," Stiller criticized the "sometimes devastating sanitary conditions" due to the lack of toilets.
"We call on the Verkehrsverbund Ostregion to ensure the possibility of longer breaks at the start and end points of bus routes as well as the construction of more break rooms at the start and end stops in the tenders. This has to happen in the course of the tenders. So the person who tenders must either provide the sanitary and break rooms or must ensure in the tenders that appropriate premises are made available."
Breaks often not possible
Another unattractive thing about the profession of bus driver is that timetables and routes are designed in such a way that breaks are often not possible. Bus drivers therefore often have no other option than "quick and illegal outdoor defecation," Brenner criticizes. However, the "quick way out into the countryside" can be sanctioned with severe administrative penalties – depending on the federal state, this can range from a few hundred to thousands of euros.
Committed to people and the climate
Side by side with the bus drivers, climate activists from Fridays for Future and System Change not Climate Change also protested. Since the beginning of the year, they have been fighting for better working conditions in public transport with the trade union vida in the alliance "We drive together".
"The urgently needed expansion of public transport cannot succeed as long as savings are made on such basic things as toilets for employees. In Lower Austria alone, there is a shortage of thousands of bus drivers - no wonder with these inhumane working conditions! Fair climate policy means: comprehensive, cheap and good public transport for passengers and employees."
The alliance "We Drive Together" demands from the VOR, which is responsible for line design, tendering and awarding, that tenders must not be designed on the backs of employees. Employee protection and corresponding social standards must be observed: It must therefore be included in tenders that sanitary facilities and break rooms must be provided by the respective operator in appropriate numbers, emphasizes vida trade unionist Stiller.