Absenteeism has been a persistent problem that can directly impact an organization’s ability to meet the demands of providing service. When we add other factors such as operator job satisfaction, the attractiveness of the profession to current and future workers, and the evolving attitudes towards work, we arrive at 2025 with absenteeism playing a role in workforce availability. To assist the public transportation industry, several APTA members participated in a global study on operator absenteeism. The result is a report which aims to describe the causes and impact of absenteeism, while identifying action plans that organizations can use to address the issue. This report developed by the International Association of Public Transport (UITP) was released February 2025.
Two of UITP’s business members, Alexandre Guyot and Jérôme Cointot, present the key factors from the report in a video recorded with APTA’s Workforce Development and Educational Services team. The video includes questions from APTA members to help make a direct correlation to the challenges we face in the U.S. You will see two Workforce Development Committee leaders featured in the video, George Fields, Deputy General Manager, Human Resources at Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA), who serves as 1st Vice Chair of the Labor & Employee Relations Subcommittee and Steve Jovel, Operations Manager, Workforce Development at Santa Clara Valley (VTA), who serves as the 1st Vice Chair of the Education & Career Awareness Subcommittee. Lastly, this report is also accompanied by the PowerPoint that was created to accompany and support the video.
A very special thank you to Christel Goossens at UITP for partnering with the APTA Workforce team to share the report “Understanding Absenteeism in Public Transport Operations.” All questions and comments are welcomed; email our team at Workforce@apta.com
