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Poniedziałek, 11 grudnia 2023 r. - Strasburg

16. Minimalne wymogi dotyczące minimalnych przerw oraz dziennego i tygodniowego okresu odpoczynku w sektorze okazjonalnego przewozu osób (krótka prezentacja)

  Przewodnicząca. – Kolejnym punktem porządku dziennego jest krótka prezentacja sprawozdania sporządzonego przez Hennę Virkkunen w imieniu Komisji Transportu i Turystyki w sprawie wniosku dotyczącego rozporządzenia Parlamentu Europejskiego i Rady zmieniającego rozporządzenie (WE) nr 561/2006 w odniesieniu do minimalnych wymogów dotyczących minimalnych przerw oraz dziennego i tygodniowego okresu odpoczynku w sektorze okazjonalnego przewozu osób (COM(2023)0256 - C9-0178/2023 - 2023/0155(COD)) (A9-0370/2023).

  Henna Virkkunen, rapporteur. – Madam President, I want to thank my shadow rapporteurs for the collaboration on this file. We have now a broad majority, which I hope will support the Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN Committee) result in the vote tomorrow. Why do we need this regulation? I think we all know that transporting people is very different from transporting goods. And this is the reason why the Parliament has asked and the Commission has proposed this revision of the existing driving and resting time rules for the occasional passenger transport sector. At the TRAN Committee, we support the Commission’s view that some more flexibility is needed here, both for the drivers and for the passengers. Occasional passenger transport, meaning usually tourist bus services are characterised by seasonality and changing circumstances during the trips. Flexibility is in the essence of those services, and it is also the reason why the passengers have chosen that service and not the regular passenger service. At the same time, we must continue to always preserve road safety and ensure proper working conditions for the drivers. We should also keep in mind that the regulation on driving and resting times has been revised only a few years ago, as a part of the Mobility Package. Therefore, these regulatory updates should remain limited and concern only the occasional passenger transport sector. With regard to the rules on brakes, the current rules do not, in practice, always match with the natural stops of occasional passenger journeys. Too rigid timetables adds stress to the drivers. In order to be able to provide a good quality transport service, the drivers need to adapt to changing circumstances. The TRAN Committee’s compromise on brakes now allows splitting the daily brake into two breaks of a minimum of 15 minutes each. These breaks can be divided in more flexible manner than in the current rules.

On the rules on daily rests, the TRAN Committee supports the possibility for postponing the start of the daily rest with one hour in certain situations. The tourism journeys are usually going like that, that longer distances driven at the beginning and the end of the tour, and by shorter driving time at the place where the touristic activities are taking place. The one extra hour allows the driver to better respond also to passenger needs.

The main negotiation point has been the condition of the number of days required to use this derogation. The Commission originally proposed that the derogation can be used on trips lasting eight days or longer. However, tourism trips in the EU on average are much shorter, only 4 to 5 days. For ensuring that the one-hour derogation can sometimes actually be used in practice the compromise brings the condition down to six days. One important objective of the EU rules on driving and resting times is to ensure fair competition within the EU internal market. Therefore, at the TRAN Committee, we support the Commission proposal to allow drivers to postpone their weekly rest up to 12 days on both international and national journeys. The alignment of national and international services also simplifies the enforcement and control of driving and resting rules. We all know that all these rules do not matter if they are not enforced and controlled properly. Already now, in practice, there are big challenges in several member States with enforcement and control of existing rules, both in freight and in passenger transport. Therefore, at the TRAN Committee, we have introduced measures to facilitate the work of control authorities with regards to, for example, digital journey forms and smart tachographs.

Puhetta johti HEIDI HAUTALA
varapuhemies

Pyynnöstä myönnettävät puheenvuorot

  Isabel García Muñoz (S&D). – Señora presidenta, las nuevas medidas propuestas en esta revisión tienen como objetivo dar una mayor seguridad a los conductores en el transporte turístico y ocasional y mejorar sus condiciones de trabajo. Se trata de un sector muy específico caracterizado por jornadas laborales en las que se compagina la conducción con otro tipo de trabajos vinculados a las actividades turísticas, por lo que se conducen menos horas que en el regular.

Las nuevas normas dan a los trabajadores cierta flexibilidad para abordar imprevistos y evitar situaciones como la sucedida en Alemania, donde un conductor abandonó a 42 personas en una autopista por haber cumplido sus horas de conducción y, cuando se negó a seguir, fue despedido.

Además, se da la posibilidad de que en un tour nacional los conductores puedan acumular los descansos semanales al final del viaje y volver a sus casas con sus familias, algo que ya ocurre en los viajes internacionales.

Por último, se refuerzan los controles para proteger a los trabajadores y evitar posibles abusos.

Apoyar estas medidas es apoyar la seguridad jurídica que necesitan los conductores del transporte ocasional y mejorar sus condiciones de trabajo, su seguridad y la de los pasajeros.

  Mick Wallace (The Left). – Madam President, the European Transport Workers Federation says poor work organisation, difficult working conditions, stress and fatigue due to ineffective brakes, increased workload due to additional tasks and a lack of enforcement are the main causes of driver shortages in the bus and coach sector. The drivers union wants better enforcement of the existing rules and no further flexibility. The existing driving and resting time rules already have the potential to ensure a decent work environment for these drivers, and there is no reason to revise them. This is the view of the union that represents the drivers themselves, the people most affected by the proposed changes. We should listen to those most affected, to workers, not to their bosses in the transport operation Union. Europe is not the bastion of workers rights it thinks it is all the time. Its overall rating in the Global Rights Index, published by the International Trade Union Confederation, has fallen significantly in the last ten years. Workers across Europe deserve better.

(Pyynnöstä myönnettävät puheenvuorot päättyvät)

  Kadri Simson, Member of the Commission. – Madam President, the Commission would first like to thank the Parliament for putting this important report on tonight’s agenda. During the Mobility Package Fund discussions, the co-legislators noticed that the driving and rest time rules do not take into account the specificities of bus and coach occasional services, and requested the Commission to assess the need to revise them. In light of this assessment, the Commission presented a proposal taking into account the specificities of the bus and coach occasional transport services. Drivers in this sector have a different work rhythm compared to those in freight or regular passenger transport, due to the high seasonality and varying driving distances depending on passengers’ tourist activities.

The Commission’s proposal would allow bus and coach drivers providing such services to distribute their brakes and respites more flexibly. Like this, we want to reduce driver stress and fatigue levels and at the same time improve the quality of occasional passenger services without changing the minimum duration of breaks or rest periods that must be respected to ensure the drivers recuperation.

Whilst the Commission reserves its position at this stage, the Commission would nevertheless like to thank Ms Virkkunen for her very good report, which is very much in line with the objectives of the Commission proposal. The Commission is also hopeful that early agreement can be reached on this proposal, and would urge co-legislators to start trialogues as soon as possible. However, the Commission would like to share a couple of observations on the report.

The first one relates to the creation of a multilingual interface for the submission of journey forms. We think that this would be disproportionate in terms of costs and resources, given the size of the sector, and that an update of tachographs should be enough for control purposes.

The second one relates to the flexibility of daily rest periods. Whilst we welcome the reduction of the length of journeys eligible for derogations, we believe that further flexibility could be foreseen in the situation when drivers have less accumulated driving time.

  Puhemies. – Keskustelu on päättynyt, ja äänestys toimitetaan huomenna.

Kirjalliset lausumat (171 artikla)

  Sara Cerdas (S&D), por escrito. – Os períodos de pausa e descanso no setor do transporte rodoviário de passageiros, nomeadamente no setor do turismo, são fundamentais para garantir a segurança rodoviária e o direito ao repouso dos trabalhadores dos transportes de passageiros. A proposta da Comissão Europeia de alargar aos condutores que executam percursos turísticos dentro do mesmo Estado—Membro a derrogação que possibilita que os motoristas organizem o seu itinerário de forma a reduzir as noites passadas longe de casa, e assim descansarem, garante uma igualdade de condições, visto que esta já é uma realidade no transporte internacional de passageiros em passeios turísticos. A derrogação acaba com a discriminação que existe entre os motoristas que prestam serviços num circuito nacional de passeios turísticos e os motoristas que prestam serviços no circuito internacional. A aplicação da derrogação é crucial para garantir que todos os trabalhadores sejam tratados com a mesma justiça e igualdade, sem dependerem da passagem de uma fronteira para ganhar o pleno direito ao descanso.