Mapping the Needs of Managerial and Professional Staff in Transport

Managerial and Professional Staff (MPS) face specific challenges at work. Unions need to better understand the experiences of this growing category of transport workers, in order to organise them and offer tailored support.

To help unions gather knowledge and develop strategies, ETF carried out the project “TRAN-MAPS – Transport trade unions organising Managerial & Professional Staff”. This EU-funded project aimed to define the challenges faced by MPS and set out strategies that transport trade unions can use to attract them to join the union.

The result was a comprehensive report that gives an overview of MPS in the transport sector, offers tips for unions, and presents in depth analysis of five issues that particularly affect MPS:

• Exploitation of young graduates, who are not offered sufficient support and often find themselves on precarious contracts.
• Unequal treatment of women MPS, whose skills and contributions are undervalued.
• Criminalisation of MPS, who are held personally responsible when things go wrong.
• Excessive working time and workload, especially in the era of digital communications where MPS are expected to be always available.
• Poorly designed and implemented corporate and management responsibility policies, which can alienate or put excessive pressure on MPS.

The report is available as a short leaflet or a longer brochure, and is full of useful insights for unions and anyone interested in the changing world of work.