Bus drivers are set to strike at the end of May over proposed plans to open up RATP bus services to subsidiary companies, with changes to working conditions.

As of January 1st, 2025, all bus drivers will be transferred to the subsidiaries or competing companies who won bids issued by the regional transport authority, Île-de-France Mobilités.

RATP plans to put the new working conditions into effect – those that would have been set to apply in 2025 – as early as July. These changes would impact at least 18,000 drivers. 

Specifically, drivers will fall under the “territorial social framework” (CST), the minimum legal framework for working hours, which will require 35 hours of work per week (and 37 hours per week for select drivers). Currently, the RATP’s rules regarding working hours are more advantageous, with the average driver working 33 hours a week (excluding overtime and travel time). 

Union management has been fighting against these proposed changes for over a year, having already held a strike March 25th, which impacted over 30 percent of bus lines in the Paris region.

Now, they calling for mobilisation to “defend their working conditions” again.