72.6% of transport workers in Bulgaria say their workplace is short of staff, according to a survey by the Federation of Transport Trade Unions (FTS) at the KNSB trade union confederation. The shortage is worst in aviation, where 92.7% report it, and in water transport, at 85.5%. Land transport is in line with the sector average.
FTS chairman Aleksandar Shopov presented the survey at KNSB headquarters. It is titled "Review and analysis of working conditions and related illness among workers in the transport sector". The Working Conditions Fund at the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy backed the work. The analysis covers all three types of transport: land, water and air.
Between January and November this year, 2,141 completed questionnaires were collected. Land transport accounts for 75.9% of respondents, water transport for 12.6% and air transport for 11.6%.
Workload is high for 86.3% of workers in aviation, 84.8% in water transport and 63.6% in land transport. More than 70% say noise at work is high, 64.9% have sleep problems and 64.1% suffer from chronic fatigue.
People aged 40 to 64 make up 82.5% of respondents, while only 1% are under 25. Men account for 72.2% and women for 27.8%.
Shopov says the main problems are a lack of staff and the level of pay, and that workers face a constant risk of illness. He believes experienced people must be kept in their jobs, and conditions must be created to attract young people.
"Once the older workers in the sector retire, we will bring transport to a halt and there will be nobody to deliver supplies by sea," Shopov said.
FTS calls for enough staff, decent pay, staffing plans, a minimum safe staffing level and a reserve to cover absences. The federation also wants more funding to attract, train and keep staff, real breaks, predictable schedules, safe equipment and money for prevention and health protection.
KNSB vice president Ognyan Atanasov said Bulgarian law has almost no rules that protect workers from stress. The European Commission is preparing a directive on psychosocial risks at work. He said it is very important and should be introduced as soon as possible.
Last year more than 840,000 people worldwide died from illnesses linked to chronic stress, work pressure and burnout, Atanasov said. He said stress-related absences cost employers in Bulgaria hundreds of millions of euros. In his words, stress leads to chronic illness and steps are needed, yet transport has been neglected on this issue, even though the lives of many people depend on its workers.
Ivan Nikolov, deputy mayor for transport at Sofia city council, called transport perhaps one of the biggest and most important sectors. He said the city is working to improve conditions for public transport workers, mainly by modernising the system.
"Modern public transport does not mean only vehicles, it also means modern working conditions for the people who work in it," Nikolov said. He and Sofia mayor Vasil Terziev aim to modernise almost all of the capital's public transport by 2030, with a large delivery of vehicles.