Salaries of Bulgaria Railroad Workers Cut by 30% Temporarily

Bulgaria's railroad workers are going to get 30% smaller pay by the end of 2009. Photo by BGNES

Starting September 1, 2009, Bulgaria's National Company "Railroad Infrastructure" is going to reduce the salaries of its employees by 30%.

This was announced Monday by the company's Director, Anton Ginev, who also explained that the cut was only a temporarily anti-crisis measures, and the workers would receive their 30% cuts back after January 1, 2009, together with the respective interest.

The temporary pay decrease is part of anti-crisis package to reduce the BGN 50 M deficit of the state-owned rail company, whose revenue dropped by 20% in the first half of 2009 compared to the same period of 2008.

Ginev said that the Railroad Infrastructure Company had incurred losses amounting to BGN 8,5 M from 13 of the railroad lines in Bulgaria but the shutting down of those lines was an extreme decision that could not be made by the company itself.

Trade unionists have declared that the closure of the unprofitable lines would lead to the layoffs of 644 workers, and laying off workers from the other, profitable rail lines, would endanger their safety. According to Petar Bunev, Chair of the Bulgarian Railroad Workers' Syndicate, any layoffs should be made among the administrative staff of the company, not among its workers.

 

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