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When there is varying demand for employees at different times of the day, it is important to have efficient schedules for the employees in order to cover the demand with minimal cost. On the other hand, there is a range of legal requirements, collective agreements and company policies that need to be taken into account to create feasible schedules. Further, not every schedule that is feasible will be readily accepted by the employees, purely optimizing cost might result in reduced employee satisfaction and potential conflicts with labour unions.

An area that is especially restricted by various constraints is scheduling for drivers in public transport. As these employees have a great responsibility keeping their passengers safe, legal requirements enforce strict break assignments in order to maintain concentration. In addition to that a spatial component needs to be considered. This makes the goal to create cost-efficient and employee-friendly schedules even more challenging. This paper deals with optimizing schedules for bus drivers in Austria, using the regulations from