The works council of Servicios Ferroviarios de Mallorca (SFM), the Mallorca Railway Service, expressed its ‘deep disappointment’ on Thursday after a meeting with management to discuss the implementation of regulations and improvements in railway safety, and threatened to take action from 19 February if a draft document addressing these issues is not presented.
A spokesperson for the workers’ committee said that the document submitted by the public company lacks specific commitments and only sets out measures ‘to be studied’ without a defined timetable.
Speaking to the media, he criticised the fact that the text repeatedly uses expressions such as ‘will be studied’ or ‘the tool will be sought’, with deadlines that place the resolution of key issues ‘in the long term’.
The representative also pointed out that some proposals ‘run counter’ to agreements already adopted by other railway operators at national level, where control bodies and external safety audits have been strengthened. Among the main complaints is the lack of formalisation of the Traffic Safety Commission, given that the workers’ committee has stressed that the implementation of the management system should be ‘much more advanced’ and considers it ‘insufficient’ that the drafting of the commission’s statutes has been postponed until 19 February, when the company has committed to presenting a draft to begin the debate on its functioning.
It has also questioned the fact that SFM still does not have a defined tool to guarantee the real traceability of incidents and the monitoring of responsibilities, understanding that there is ‘a problem of communication and action’ on a day-to-day basis. The committee has also called for a computer system that allows each incident to be recorded, monitored and responded to ‘as soon as possible’ and has requested clear operating protocols.
Another point of friction is the outsourcing model in areas considered critical to safety. Specifically, the committee has called for at least a medium- or long-term commitment to insource certain resources related to maintenance and repair, considering that management through contractors makes it difficult to assume direct responsibility. According to the spokesperson, management has reiterated its willingness to maintain the current outsourcing model, which, in his opinion, ‘blurs’ responsibility for safety.
The committee has warned that 19 February will be a ‘key’ date for assessing whether there has been substantial progress in the implementation of measures, and has indicated that, if this is not the case, it will consider calling for industrial action. ‘We cannot wait any longer,’ it stressed. The Minister for Mobility, Jose Luis Mateo, has defended that the analysis of the 48 points presented to the workers’ committee has been carried out exclusively by SFM technicians and that ‘there is no political intervention’ in its content, except in relation to the outsourcing of services.
‘It is a purely technical issue,’ said Mateo, who also assured that the Safety Commission will be set up so that it can be operational from March, once its statutes have been presented and debated.
The regional minister indicated that a new digital bulletin will begin testing this Friday to improve communication and the traceability of incidents, and he recalled that the implementation of technological tools in a public administration requires regulated procedures and contracting processes that are not immediate.
Mateo defended the outsourcing model in critical areas, stressing that ‘it is not a question of security, but of whether the service works well or poorly,’ and in turn emphasised that his department’s priority is security and maintenance, with budgets that, as he emphasised, have increased in recent years.