Social Dialogue

Social dialogue refers to structured discussion between the organisations which represent workers and employers, known as social partners. The EU supports social dialogue at European level, and the ETF is a recognised social partner for the urban public transport sector.

European social dialogue in the urban public transport sector was established in 2001. It is formally a working group of the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee (SSDC) for Road Transport. The main social partner for ETF on the employer’s side is the International Association of Public Transport (UITP).

In February 2015, UITP and ETF jointly asked the European Commission to establish their own SSDC for urban public transport. As a sector representing more than 1 million workers in Europe we believe that the sector deserves its own SSDC.

The current Work Program 2018/2019 is focussed on:

• An update of the “Joint Recommendations on insecurity and the feeling of insecurity” (2003), tackling not only violence coming from a third party but also violence from colleagues or managers, in particular against women.
• A two-year study on digitalisation and automation in the urban public transport sector and its impact on workers, including the question of workers’ information and participation.
• Implementation of the Joint Recommendation on women’s employment in urban public transport, in order to reach the 25% target for 2020.

An ongoing joint UITP/ETF project addresses social partners in Central and Eastern European countries.

Additionally to the project activities, the UPT social dialogue meets twice a year in Brussels. The Presidency alternates between UITP and ETF every three years. Currently the presidency is with UITP:

• Benoît Juery (Transdev, France) is the President on behalf of UITP
• Mira Ball (ver.di, Germany) is the Vice-President on behalf of ETF