In early June, the destiny of the financially troubled state railways in Bulgaria will become clear. Then the company is expected to hold a general meeting of creditors, which will have to take some very important decisions about the fate of the company. One of them is which assets will be sold. What is supposed to be sold are 3407 freight cars and 25 passenger cars, which were bought from the German company Siemens.
„The train cars are currently not used and will not hinder the activities of the company. For the passenger trains, however, will not allow a sales procedure. We are considering all options to make this not happen. Yet it comes to the company’s newest railcars and without them we can not perform our activity,“ said Transport Minister Daniel Papazoff last week.
Another key issue to be considered at this meeting will be a recovery plan for the Railways. Insiders say that there are more than eight versions of the document, but no one wants to comment on the details before the actual negotiations with creditors start. Each of the options, however, envisages a restructuring of the repair activities. The currently existing 13 repair bases in the country are expected to be reduced in number but become better equipped.
The most delicate point in the recovery plan remains the imperative personnel optimization. Several days ago the trade unions sent out a letter to institutions and the media in which the demand halting layoffs in railways. This, according to them, was a gross violation of collective agreements and in general – of the agreement between the social partners. The reason for the sharp reaction was media publication in a local papers, which said that the Railways is preparing the dismissal of 700 people to convince foreign creditors that it exerts efforts to reduce costs.
„Despite the difficult financial situation of the company, one does not expect layoffs and internal restructuring. Does optimization have to mean lay-offs? We have showed very precisely and clearly what we mean by optimization. We have now many jobs that are needed but not opened in the Railways and in the same time – we have too many people in administration, which shows that people can move from one position to another. An accountant can become a car registry unit, a freight forwarder or ticket vendor for example. If these people want to remain in Railways, they will have to retrain. We will do our programmes in a way to redirect these people to new jobs, but if they are not willing, that’s their problem,“ said Daniel Papazoff. According to him, the situation was pressurized by the media that published the number of 700 people to be laid off without anybody from the managers or from the ministry to have mentioned it. The company even added that by the end of the year there will be an increase in the salaries of some employees, but still it is not clear what percentage this increase may amount to.
The Minister said that by mid-summer the distance from Vratsa to Sofia will be travelled by train for about an hour and a half. Now this difficult area passing through the Iskar Gorge is being repaired by a grant of 14 million levs extended to the National Company Railway Infrastructure.
The BANKER
