Hessian parliament passes revised procurement and collective-pay law

In local transport by rail and road, a 'should' rule on taking over staff when operators change will apply, but in local bus services only pay and length of service transfer to the new operator. The pay-compliance obligation extends beyond local public transport and regional rail, chains of subcontractors may include at most two firms below the main contractor, and only the winning bidder has to submit all supporting documents.

The Hesse state parliament has passed the revised Procurement and Collective-Pay Compliance Act (HVTG), on which the CDU–SPD state government had worked since 2024. In local transport by rail and road, a 'should' rule on taking over staff when operators change will apply; in addition the pay-compliance obligation is extended beyond local public transport and regional rail, chains of subcontractors may include at most two firms below the main contractor, a new control group at the ministry supports contracting authorities with event-driven checks, and only the winning bidder will have to submit all supporting documents. The union mobifair criticises that in local bus services only pay and length of service are to transfer to the new operator and considers this probably contrary to EU law (LOK Report, 19 Jun 2026).