House cleaning with soaring ticket prices!

Today from Reppas at the ministerial, the bill for the reconstruction of urban transport with wage cuts

Minister of Infrastructure Dimitris Reppas is presenting to the ministerial meeting today the urban transport consolidation plan with the dilemma of lay offs and and the sale to private companies if losses are not nullified until the end of 2011.  

Among massive protests that are expected to escalate in the next days, the bill is following the OSE plan with an aim for all legislative and administrative measures to be completed within the first ten days of February.

The new regulations integrate the five transportation agencies in two (one for mid-track and another for terrestrial means) under the OASA umbrella, which is converted into a metropolitan public transport operator, and bring drastic changes in the operation system, labor contracts and ticket prices, which are expected to increase from 30% to 50%, skyrocketing to 1,80 euros.

The pricing policy of transport services has been reviewed from the start. The tariff and the duration of the ticket are also being considered.

Higher ranking members of the ministry say that the 90-cent ticket will be removed and that the creation of zones is considered and will be linked to the mileage and the use of different modes. The increase is expected to bring revenue of more than 100mil euros.
 

Cuts in wages, sanctions on administrations

The crucial point is the new unified payroll. Wages in urban transport are entering the most painful phase of the consolidation plan for public transport these days, through the re-negotiation of labor relations, which provides for a salary cap in secondary earnings (up to 10% of basic wage), allowances and overtime reduction, and of course 1,800 surplus staff transfers.

Moreover, a model is being introduced which links administration wages with the performance of each company to provide incentives to management for tidying up their businesses. If public transport is not achieving its financial goals, then monetary penalties will be imposed on the administrations.

According to the bill prepared for all DEKO and transportation that is being voted on today, the upper limit of gross annual earnings of employees will be at 48,000 euros and will not foresee any reduction in the monthly wages of up to 1,800 euros. The new wages will include minimum wage, time and family allowances, as well as position and academic degree allowances. As government officials state, the 755mil euro deficit needs to be cut at its source, i.e. the uneven and excessive payrolls in the urban transport sector.
 
Staff costs are at 81%  

The main reason is staff costs, representing 78% of the total operating costs of transport. For example, OASA is at 85%, ETHEL at 79%, ILPAP and ISAP at 81%, TRAM and AMEL at 74% and 66% respectively. According to 2009 data, the highest cost per head was in ISAP (86,312 euros) despite the fact that AMEL, conducting a similar type of business , was at 43,000.

Wage inequality in transport must be stopped and now the dilemma posed by the government to the unions is either wage cuts or layoffs, not excluding the sale of problematic urban transports to individuals, in order to endure as painlessly as possible the great twists brought to labor issues by Troika and the Memorandum.
 
Basic services furnished to individuals

Even though minister Dimitris Reppas keeps defending the public nature of public transport, it’s obvious that the corporate consolidation also passes through private contractors, who very soon – the relevant competitions will be out within the first trimester next year – will be called to take charge of the problematic DEKO sectors with great losses, signing long term concession contracts.

This is ticket-avoidance that reaches 30 or even 40%, the distribution of tickets with an estimation that 20% are contraband, advertising revenue from vehicles and stations to be increased by 60% and the allocation of real estate with a focus on car parks mainly by the tracks of the metro, tram, and ISAP.