The CNV transport union has asked transport minister Camiel Eurlings to organise a meeting with provinces, bus firms and unions to discuss problems with putting bus services out to public tender.

The increasingly tight tendering process is having a detrimental effect on the pay and conditions of the country’s 14,000 bus drivers, union chairman Jean Marie Severeijns told news agency ANP.
Private bus firms such as Veolia and Arriva are making such low bids to operate services that drivers’ pay was coming under pressure, he said.