Palma bus drivers at the end of their tether

Drivers with the Palma EMT bus company are suffering stress because of what they say are unrealistic schedules, insufficient rest time and passenger attitudes.

Absenteeism is running at up to 15% of the workforce. Drivers argue that this is due in large part to the stress and anxiety of being at the frontline of a service that is not working as it should. One driver, Gabriel Blanco, says that there are passengers who stand in front of the bus, hit the windscreen, won’t move unless the door is opened. “The other day they showed me the finger, they get very aggressive.”

Ana Salazar had been a driver for only a short time when she suffered a stress attack. A woman couldn’t get on the bus and threatened Ana with ruining her life, getting her sacked and slashing her throat. “I was off work for four days because she blew my mind. I couldn’t understand the hatred towards me from someone who didn’t know me at all.”

Carolina Bernabé says: “When you get on the bus it’s like you’re entering my house, you have to respect me.” But people don’t. They’re not meant to eat on the bus, but they do. They leave it filthy and then it’s her fault. Then there are those who have music on at high volume as well as the phones. “Can you imagine 25 phones ringing at the same time? They drive me crazy.” She left work crying last week and ended up in the emergency room due to a migraine caused by nerves.

The drivers understand passenger anger when buses are late, don’t arrive at all or are full. This year, the situation has worsened because the service has been free. They estimate that numbers have grown 40%, but the company wasn’t in a position to deal with this. They believe that EMT is being managed the same way as it was fifteen years ago when there were only some 100 workers; there are now around 800.

David Gutiérrez points out that many of his colleagues suffer from stress and that much of the problem lies with frequencies. Until a few months ago, instead of there being five buses on a line with frequencies of ten minutes, there were two and the frequency rose to 30 minutes. “This was covered up but now it’s coming to light.”

With political change at Palma town hall, there is a new mood, although it remains to be seen if it will bear fruit. Much has been made by the new administration about the number of buses that were off the road. The drivers verify this. Of a fleet of 180 buses, up to half of them could have been under repair at any given time. A reason for this was that repairs were being outsourced.

Drivers have been calling for more mechanics and better training. The town hall has managed to reduce the number of buses that are off the road, but only time will tell if enough is being done.