The Government activates the teleworking decree due to the chaos on the commuter rail network

BarcelonaThe Catalan government agreed on Monday to activate the teleworking decree to minimize mobility and reinforce all intercity bus lines during the day due to disruptions on the commuter rail network in Catalonia. The measures were agreed upon at a new government monitoring meeting, coinciding with Two new network outages this morning due to IT issues.

In a statement following this meeting, the Catalan government assured that it continues to follow the rail situation in Catalonia "with concern." Furthermore, the government "maintains constant contact with the country's economic and social stakeholders to share and update information on the commuter rail network and the resulting consequences," and affirms that there will be a meeting with social partners to analyze the situation.

The situation is causing concern among Catalan economic sectors. Thus, the "Move for Barcelona" Roundtable, which brings together the city's main employers' associations and economic sectors, has warned that the government's recommendation to prioritize teleworking due to the current state of the commuter rail service "is not viable" for many sectors such as healthcare, education, commerce, construction, restaurants, and services.

For this reason, it has called for an emergency strategy to guarantee the safety of all passengers and the immediate restoration of normal business productivity. In a statement, the group warns that the "unprecedented" rail crisis the country is experiencing is preventing more than 400,000 passengers a day from fulfilling their work obligations.

Country at a standstill

"The Government must understand that halting commuter rail services is tantamount to halting the country, with the serious social, health, and economic repercussions this entails," they stated. Therefore, they insisted on the need for a "stable and sustained" emergency plan that ensures efficient travel, preserves normal production, and guarantees the safety of users, with the goal of restoring normalcy "as quickly as possible." In parallel, the Roundtable urged the Government to prioritize commuter rail over other projects, allocating more investment to everyday mobility than to large, symbolic infrastructure projects. For their part, representatives from the CCOO and UGT unions demanded "clear and precise instructions" from the Government to prevent workers from bearing the brunt of the commuter rail crisis. Speaking to the media after meeting with regional ministers Albert Dalmau and Miquel Sàmper this Monday at the Palau de la Generalitat, the general secretary of the CCOO union, Belén López, called for a single channel for reporting on the mobility situation. The leader of the UGT union, Camil Ros, asked for "flexibility" so that workers are not negatively impacted by the rail chaos. The president of the Pimec business association, Antoni Cañete, stated that the Catalan government "is not to blame" but is "responsible" for the crisis. Unions and employers will remain in contact today to develop "joint recommendations" for the public in the coming days.