EVG trade union leader Kristian Loroch has told Tagesspiegel that train staff must be better protected against passenger abuse if train service disruption during the tournament are to be prevented.

EVG threatens train disruption during summer in Germany

Leader of the German Rail Workers’ Union (EVG) Kristian Loroch has said that train staff could down tools during the 2024 Euros football tournament in Germany this summer unless more is done to protect employees against abuse from passengers.

“We will make sure that trains won’t run,” Loroch said In an exclusive interview with Tagesspiegel. 

Train workers who are EVG members are currently employed under a collective bargaining agreement valid until March 2025. This means strike action is prohibited under the agreement until the spring of next year. However, Loroch explained that staff could collectively decide to reduce their personal overtime hours, which would significantly disrupt long-distance train services.

The opening match of the Euros tournament is set to kick off in Berlin on June 14. An agreement between Deutsche Bahn and UEFA to sell cheaper, 30-euro train tickets to match attendees travelling to one of Germany’s nine host cities, also means that large numbers of fans are expected to travel by train.

40 percent of German train staff feel unsafe at work

According to a recent EVG survey of around 4.000 train staff, 64 percent of respondents said that they had experienced violence or aggression from passengers at work during the past 12 months.

82 percent of respondents said that they had experienced verbal or physical assault at work at some point in their career, and 63 percent said that how safe they feel at work had decreased within the last five years.

The announcement from Loroch follows similar public transport staff protests in the Netherlands. After a ticket collector was pushed down a set of stairs, kicked and beaten in early April, staff at the Dutch train operator NS brought trains to a halt on the evening of April 20 to protest passenger abuse towards staff. 

Incidents of abuse against train staff in the Netherlands have increased by 8 percent since 2022, according to De Telegraaf.

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