Deutsche Bahn: No mask, no train, is chaos looming now?

meIt’s a question that has been debated for weeks and for which there is still no real solution: Who should enforce the mask requirement on trains? It is true that all passengers on public transport have had to cover their mouth and nose for months. But what good is this rule if there are no sanctions and no one to enforce them?

Until now, train attendants on Deutsche Bahn trains are supposed to ensure that all passengers wear a mask. Those who steadfastly refuse to be thrown off the train at the next station, with the help of the federal police if necessary.

But that’s just the theory. Because even if the majority of the passengers adhere to the mask requirement, there are still too many violations for the Federal Police to approach each time. In the future, there will now be a penalty in the form of a so-called transport fee increase.

Train attendants should pick that up too. But resistance has been building for some time among workers and their unions.

Now the head of the Union of Railways and Transport (EVG), Klaus-Dieter Hommel, announced that employees will defend themselves from the new duties imposed on them. “We have a duty to take care of our members. That is why we will do everything possible to prevent it, ”said Hommel of the“ Süddeutsche Zeitung ”.

“If it comes down to it, then when in doubt the trains won’t run.” Works councils could, for example, refuse to approve service lists if employees were at risk. “From our point of view, that would be the case here,” Hommel said.

So is there a risk of train cancellations soon, because politicians and Deutsche Bahn (DB) now want to impose fines on their employees? In the competing union of locomotive drivers (GDL), one does not believe that plans can be stopped so easily, even if one wanted to.

“It is difficult for the employees to prevent train attendants from being forced to control the requirement for masks and the collection of fines by the company and the Ministry of Transport,” said GDL chief Claus Weselsky WELT.

Disagreeing with the service lists is of no use in practice; there are ways to issue them without the consent of the works councils. “Also, it’s not our goal to stop the railroad,” Weselsky said. “Such suggestions are a labor of the head.”

However, unions are unanimous in fundamentally rejecting plans to send train attendants alone to fight those who refuse to wear masks. The mask requirement must be anchored in the transport conditions as a first step, the GDL requires.

But simply relying on the federal police is not enough for implementation. “It is unrealistic to refer to the federal police when enforcing the mask requirement,” Weselsky said. “That doesn’t help the train attendants if the federal police can’t do this job.”

Unions fear attacks by rebel rebels against train attendants. In fact, a recent survey by the GDL has shown that railway employees in Germany report increasingly frequent attacks and insults.

Monitor employee safety

The situation has worsened due to the corona pandemic, Weselsky says, aggressiveness has increased again due to new sources of conflict such as the mask requirement. “The train attendants are not police officers, the attacks on train personnel have already doubled, so it is a completely wrong approach that they should now also impose penalties for violating the mask requirement,” says Weselsky.

The GDL sees above all the duty of Deutsche Bahn as an employer to ensure more safety and at the same time enforce the mask requirement. “Deutsche Bahn has to bring additional security personnel onto the trains,” Weselsky demands. “This does not necessarily mean that new people have to be hired, it would be enough if the main tasks of security personnel were set differently.”

At the state-owned company, however, they hope that solutions can still be found in the ongoing negotiations with politicians. “We are now relying on more specific discussions between transport ministers and companies in the transport sector,” said a DB spokesperson. “A regulation for companies in the industry should serve to protect passengers and also monitor the safety of employees.”

The group remains confident of compliance with the mask requirement by its passengers. “In case of conflict, we will continue to exclude passengers from transportation with the support of the Federal Police,” the company spokesperson announced. “The health and safety of employees and passengers have the highest priority.”