The Latvian Passenger Transport Association (LPPA) has called on the Minister for Transport, Atis Švinka (P), to immediately review long-term contracts and increase the minimum wages for bus drivers in the regional route network in line with the current market situation, the association reports.
According to the LPPA, the state-set wages for drivers in current public transport service procurements are almost twice as high as the wages currently paid to drivers, creating unequal treatment within the passenger transport sector.
In a letter to the Minister for Transport, the LPPA urged the government to make amendments to regulations in order to raise the wages of bus drivers on regional routes. This, the association argues, would be a practical step to reduce the driver shortage and the risk of unfulfilled routes.
LPPA President Ivo Ošenieks noted that, to ensure the provision of public bus services in the regional route network, carriers are already forced to pay bus drivers salaries that are close to the current economic realities.
“The state has not compensated the increase in wages for four years,
which causes significant financial losses for passenger carriers. Moreover, it is unfair that in the new state contracts the wage rate is set almost twice as high,” Ošenieks emphasized.
Under the long-term contracts concluded in 2020, the minimum hourly gross wage rate for bus drivers during driving time was set at 5.50 euros. Until August of this year, it had been 5.00 euros, and by 2028 it is expected to rise to 6.05 euros, the association notes.
The LPPA also points out that in the current Autotransporta Direkcija (ATD) procurement tenders for the provision of public transport services in the regional bus network, the average gross hourly wage for bus drivers is no less than 9.14 euros.
According to the LPPA, even at the time the ATD launched the procurement in 2019,
these mandatory minimum social requirements did not reflect the real market conditions
or average sector indicators.
As a result, service providers were misinformed about the potential future costs, the association argues.
Ošenieks explained that, according to data from the Central Statistical Bureau (CSB), the average gross monthly wage in Latvia in the second quarter of this year was 1,808 euros, while the gross hourly rate was 12.69 euros. This means that the current ATD-set minimum hourly rate of 5.50 euros for bus drivers no longer corresponds to the market situation.
The LPPA president stressed that the rise in wage levels has objective causes that carriers could not have foreseen when preparing their bids. For comparison, in 2021, when the first contracts with carriers took effect, the CSB reported an average monthly gross wage of 1,277 euros and an hourly rate of 8.54 euros.
The association believes that, given that regional public transport services are state-regulated, it would be a matter of national responsibility to set a uniform minimum wage rate for such state-contracted services in the regional network. According to the LPPA, the gross hourly wage rate should be at least 10 euros per hour. To achieve this,
amendments to the legislation regulating public transport services are necessary.
It has already been reported that on the 12th of August this year, representatives of public transport passenger carriers held a protest action outside the Cabinet of Ministers, urging the government to compensate cost increases caused by unforeseen extraordinary circumstances.
On the 16th of September, passenger carriers held another protest action titled “One Hour Without Public Transport” to draw attention to insufficient funding in the public transport sector.
Carriers demanded compensation for 10% of their losses incurred under long-term contracts due to extraordinary circumstances between the 1st of July, 2022, and the 31st of August, 2025.
In mid-September, representatives of ATD met with passenger carriers to discuss current issues related to long-term contracts. Following the meeting, ATD stated that it would seek legal options to meet the carriers’ demands.
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