I believe that many drivers receive less pay than they are entitled to.

Three bus drivers in Trones Persontransport have received a total of over 200,000 kroner in back pay after they received help from department manager Ole Moen in YTF's department 17.

Trones Persontransport is not unique. In recent years, he has heard several stories about drivers employed by subcontractors who are missing out on the wages they are entitled to.

– The large companies have automated solutions in place and generally have good control over this, but the subcontractors do not necessarily have that.

According to Moen, knowledge of the bus industry agreement is variable and often weak among subcontractors.

– I have had several rounds with different subcontractors, and the challenge is that the owners have not familiarized themselves well enough with the Bus Industry Agreement, says Moen.

He believes that a lack of understanding of the amendments to the Bus Industry Agreement means that several subcontractors calculate wage costs that are too low when they enter into agreements with the operators.

Moen has encountered subcontractors who have not practiced part-time bonuses, even though the employees have worked split shifts. Moen has also encountered subcontractors who do not know the rules for seniority bonuses or the competence bonuses that are triggered for passing the YSK and in-house courses.

Moen itself drives buses for Vy in Namsos. The company has been the operator of an agreement covering 10 municipalities in northern Trøndelag since 2021. The company currently uses around 10 subcontractors in this area.

In the cases where Moen has assisted drivers with subcontractors, it has ended with payments of several thousand kroner to each of the drivers. In one case, a driver received over 150,000 kroner. For several of the companies, the payments have made an already strained economy even more difficult. When a new tender was launched in 2021, two of the subcontractors chose not to continue.

Moen believes that the clients, i.e. the county municipal companies, must require that the operators ensure that the subcontractors comply with the Bus Industry Agreement.

– This is not unique to our area. I have heard of drivers in several places in the country who drive for subcontractors and who do not get what they are supposed to.

The department head believes that clients must require operators to actively ensure that subcontractors understand the Bus Industry Agreement.

– It's a problem if the subcontractors don't know what to include in the price. Then they calculate far too low labor costs, and you can understand that things get complicated when it "suddenly" turns out that you should pay your drivers 12 kroner more per hour.

According to Moen, several subcontractors are unsure how to offer drivers the in-house course, a course that will trigger a salary increase of 3 kroner per hour.

– Business owners don't know what this is, or they don't know how to do it. So last fall I created a template for internal company courses and have now – via the operating company – sent the template out to the subcontractors in our area, says Moen.

If you work in a company that lacks in-house training, you should contact your local union representative or YTF centrally.