PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2014 :: RMTnews 9 Early Day Motion 497 calling on the government to ensure that bus drivers are legally entitled to a break after 4.5 hours of continuous driving with no reduction in pay is winning cross-party support with over 30 MPs signing up. The EDM notes that bus drivers work four hours more but are paid 14 per cent less a week than the average UK worker. Currently two different sets of regulations applying to bus drivers, domestic and European, limit driving to 5.5 hours and 4.5 hours respectively before legal entitlement to a break “This mix of bus drivers' hours regulations prevents effective enforcement and forces bus drivers to work longer than is either safe or healthy,” the EDM says. RMT general secretary Mick Cash called for regulations on drivers' hours to cover all commercial journeys by passenger carrying vehicles in the UK. “This would be a significant step toward ending the culture of excessive working hours for low pay that has taken root since deregulation of the UK bus industry in 1985 when bus drivers' pay was seven per cent above the average weekly wage,” he said. Parliamentary column As a Labour MEP who is also on the European Parliament Transport Committee, I am working closely with RMT and other unions to fight the European Commission’s “Fourth Railway Package.” If enacted in the form put forward by the European Commission, the proposals could bring about mass liberalisation of rail passenger services all over Europe and force the separation of train operations from infrastructure management. The Commission’s ideological push is based on the bizarre notion that privatisation and fragmentation in the UK has been a success and should be rolled out across Europe. But success for whom? Certainly not for railway workers who see their working terms and conditions constantly under attack. Certainly not for the passengers who pay the highest fares in Europe. And certainly not for the UK taxpayers who contribute two to three times more in real terms than they did under public ownership and pay for 99 per cent for all rail investment compared to the private sector's one per cent. Even the much vaunted increase in passenger numbers is nothing to do with privatisation and instead a result of economic and population growth. But privatisation has, of course, been a success for the private train companies that have extracted hundreds of millions in dividends on the back of lucrative contracts. Not surprisingly it is many of the UK Train Operating companies and their allies in the British government who are pushing an aggressive corporate agenda in Brussels. We need to resist this agenda and I am glad that Labour voted in the UK Parliament to oppose the Fourth Rail Package. In the form proposed by the Commission, it would clearly restrict the options of any future Labour government to take the railways back into public ownership, which is a policy that I enthusiastically support. And campaigning in the European Parliament can make a difference. Earlier in the year, following lobbying by the rail unions, including members contacting their MEPs, the European Commission’s proposals for the Fourth Railway Package were amended by the majority of MEPs who voted to reject the forced opening up of passenger rail travel in the single market - a vote the then Transport Commissioner criticised as “yet another demonstration of the tenacity of the vested national interests ...”. Well precisely! But the proposals are still very much on the agenda with a complex legislative process ahead. The European Council, made up of ministers from the member states is due to discuss a revised version of the legislation, which could threaten to remove many of our hard fought victories on market opening, operator governance, and health and safety. So it is vital that we keep up the pressure and join with rail campaigners across Europe to oppose rail privatisation and fragmentation. And it is not just in the area of rail that we need to challenge the Commission's agenda. RMT members in Scotland will be aware that under current EU regulations the Scottish government is arguing that the Clyde and Hebrides ferry network must be put out to tender. I want to work with the maritime unions and Scottish Labour colleagues to explore how this can be opposed, or at the very least mitigated against. And fighting for public transport in the public sector has to be part of a wider campaign for progressive policies such as strong trade union and employment rights and challenging the EU-wide austerity agenda. I am grateful and excited to have the opportunity in the months and years ahead to work with RMT and other unions on this shared agenda. Lucy Anderson was elected as a London Labour MEP in May 2014 and is a member of the European Parliament Transport Committee. FIGHTING TRANSPORT PRIVATISATION GROWING SUPPORT FOR LOWER BUS DRIVER HOURS