The extension of intercity buses neglects Catalan

Barcelona"It's another lost opportunity," lament Platforma per la Llengua. The entity has denounced that the new decree extending interurban bus concessions —which had already been extended for decades— has not incorporated any clause into the text that guarantees the linguistic rights of Catalans to be attended to in their language and demands that the rule be modified in the upcoming proceedings. Above all, they point out from the sector, considering that recruitment at source has increased —outside of Catalonia, and even the European Union— due to the lack of Catalan drivers.

The text grants the current concessionary companies of the interurban bus service —Moventis, Sagalés, Monbus, Teisa or Alsa, among others— to continue operating these lines for another six years if they make some changes, such as expanding the fleet and renewing a large part of the buses to make them less polluting and improve the service and customer care. However, no condition or clause is included to protect Catalan, nor does it require companies to protect basic linguistic rights. For example, fully guaranteeing the use of Catalan in oral, written, or digital communication by companies and their employees.

"It cannot be that a decree-law that comes from the Government of Catalonia does not incorporate the linguistic axis: it means they have not thought about it directly," complains Clara Tur, technical manager of public administration relations at Plataforma per la Llengua. "And it also cannot be that the other parties, when they receive it, do not detect it and demand it," she adds. Tur believes that the text of the emergency decree-law should have been "forced to be withdrawn, modified, and resubmitted" under conditions. "If they have done it with the budgets, imagine if they cannot do it with a sectoral decree," values the head of political incidence of Plataforma per la Llengua, who considers that "if it has not been done, it is because other priorities and interests have been given precedence to allow these companies to proceed."

Recruitment at source

The shortage is not minor in this sector, according to the association of experts Promotion of Public Transport (PTP). Demand on intercity buses has increased by 50% in five years and is expected to rise by another 30% by 2030. "All companies are looking for more buses and more drivers," assures the president of the PTP, Adrià Ramírez, who explains that this evident lack of professionals coincides with a "lack of vocation." "It has already happened that companies are offering training for future drivers with the promise of guaranteed hiring and also a lot of hiring at origin," points out Ramírez.

The shortage of bus drivers in Catalonia is a problem also recognized by companies in the sector. Hiring at origin is the way many operators have found to fill these vacancies: offering a job and a contract that allows them to obtain a residence and work permit linked to this job offer. "It is very important that the company takes responsibility for linguistically training the drivers, to a minimum level," argues Ramírez. "This should come from the company, but we also believe it should be a mandatory requirement controlled by the administration," continues the president of the PTP. "[The new decree] was a key opportunity to regulate this sector in the linguistic field, just as we are already doing with the taxi sector, with training, accreditation...", adds Tur.

Force the change

Despite everything, Plataforma per la Llengua does not give up and now wants to try to get the decree to add these changes in future parliamentary proceedings. "We are working with political groups and legal services and we will continue to try to improve the situation. One option would be to do it with an amendment via the budget accompanying law, we are studying it", explain the spokespersons of the organization, who qualify that "it is not the best way". "It would have been better to do it right from the start — Tur claims —, it cannot be that linguistic policy is relegated to a department, all departments should incorporate this axis in everything they do, just as is already done with sustainability or equality issues", they state.

For their part, the Junts group has already announced that they will present a bill to modify the decree in this same sense and, thus, ensure knowledge of Catalan among interurban transport personnel. The initiative proposes to explicitly incorporate that, at the time of fleet renewal and service expansion, new hired personnel must have, at least, a B1 level of Catalan.