SFM Ahead of Strike Decision: Works Council Warns of Safety Gaps

SFM Ahead of Strike Decision: Works Council Warns of Safety Gaps

Key question: Are staffing measures alone sufficient, or does Mallorca's rail service need a permanent, independent safety committee?

On the morning in front of the Estación Intermodal in Palma the city traffic practically crackles: delivery vans honk, a café on the Plaça de España fills with customers, and several train conductors are quietly discussing on the platform. The mood is tense, but not hysterical. Employees of the state rail company SFM (Serveis Ferroviaris de Mallorca) have convened a full assembly today. Topic: possible work stoppages — in response to concerns about train safety and maintenance.

Critical analysis

The facts are straightforward: staff report problems with safety and maintenance. The works council has been demanding an independent safety committee since April 2022 to systematically evaluate incidents and propose preventive measures. On the other side is the Balearic government, which emphasizes that rail operations are "absolutely safe" and points out that two engineers were hired in November to strengthen safety work.

This is not a stark contradiction — it signals different perspectives. Two new engineers can fill short-term gaps, but they do not necessarily replace an independent structure for risk analysis, data processing and learning from incidents. A safety committee would define not only personnel but also processes, responsibilities and reporting lines. Without such a system, knowledge can be lost when staff change jobs or when incidents are documented in a fragmented and inconsistent way.

What is missing in the public debate

The debate so far has focused on two issues: safety itself and the question of possible strikes, as discussed in Bus strike in Mallorca: Why talks keep failing — and what might come next. Less attention has been paid to how information flows. Who collects technical data? How are individual reports condensed into trends? Who communicates findings transparently to staff and passengers? And: are there independent checks outside the internal hierarchy? This mechanism is practically invisible until something goes wrong — which is exactly what the full list of colleagues in front of the station cafeteria reminds you of.

Concrete everyday scene

A conductor I meet briefly at the station tugs at the sleeve of his work jacket: "We don't want to dramatize. But sometimes we hear unusual noises when braking, or we see trains that stay longer in the depot because spare parts are missing." He sips his cortado, checks his watch and says: "I want my colleagues and the passengers to be safe. Period." This is how conversations sound here when people talk not in press releases but in break rooms: direct, pragmatic, a little tired.

Practical solutions

To reduce the risk of escalation without progress, I propose five pragmatic steps that could connect parts of the workforce and politicians: 1) Immediate establishment of a temporary, externally supported safety committee with clear reporting to the works council and the government; 2) Transparent publication of maintenance schedules and failure statistics in anonymized form; 3) Short-term prioritization of critical spare parts and inventory of available stocks; 4) Rotation and further training for maintenance staff, supplemented by external peer review; 5) A binding communication mechanism for employees so that reports do not vanish in individual emails but are evaluated systematically.

These proposals are less technocratic than pragmatic: the aim is to create structures that preserve knowledge rather than just hiring individual people or hiding bad news.

What a strike decision would mean

A strike would directly affect Mallorca: commuters, pupils and students, tourism businesses and tradespeople would be impacted, as warned in Strike Warning in the Public Service: Could the Balearic September Come to a Standstill?, and similar disputes in other sectors have highlighted structural issues, for example Alarm on the Coast: Why the Lifeguard Strike in Mallorca Is More Than a Labor Dispute. But a prematurely halted process without organizational changes would not address the underlying risk. Strikes are instruments — not endpoints. They can create pressure, but only sustainable structures can truly improve safety.

Conclusion: Two newly hired engineers are a step, but not a complete plan. The Balearic government has a legitimate interest in calming communication; employees have an equally legitimate interest in transparent, systematic and independent investigation of problems. If both sides now stubbornly cling to positions, only uncertainty wins. A pragmatic, externally supported safety committee, coupled with clear transparency rules, would be a realistic way out of the stalemate.

At the edge of the station, while announcements about delays are being made, an older colleague adjusts his cap and says quietly: "We want to work, not strike. But we need to know that we can do it safely." That sounds like a sober demand — and that's exactly how the decision-making should be conducted now.