Romania axe 1 in 6 rail jobs

Cookie_Monster

"Not another rail thread, :rolleyes:"

Never mind the rail connection, for any public transport co to axe a 6th of its workforce is pretty shocking, especially when the trackwork is so bad trains have to run slower. Poor guys.

10,000 Romanian railway jobs axed
Monday March 08 2010

Some 10,000 people will be laid off from the Romanian state railway company as part of cost cutting measures.

The first 4,700 workers were made redundant on Monday.

The remaining 5,000 will lose their jobs at the Romanian Railway Company, CFR, by the end of April, said a government decree.

Iulian Mantescu, chairman of the Train Drivers Federation trade union, told Mediafax news agency that employees will receive severance pay of at least a year's wages.

The government first announced it would make job cuts in January, without giving precise figures, as it battles with a deep recession.

The International Monetary Fund said the economy is expected to shrink 8% this year.

Romanian railways employed some 64,000 before the cuts.

Many trains run at low speed because of old and poor-quality rails.

Judgement Day

Pity that they wouldn't do the same at management and clerical level in CIE/IE - I bet there wouldn't be a noticeable difference in service and who knows maybe an improvement.

Run_to_da_hills

If Romania is anything like Budapest Hungary I could see no reason, every metro / suburban station that i got on / off at had at least 4 kontrol inspectors, cleaners, etc these eastern European rail networks date back to Soviet Era where cheap state labour was no object, they are now in the real world....

Sponge Bob

Romania has 6 staff for every 1km of rail and is reducing to 5 staff per km.

Irish Rail, by contrast, employs about 2.5-3 staff per km. Not the same.

Mind you they had 7000 staff in 1987, got that down to 4400 by 1996 and then it bloated to 5900 again in 2001 and they have it below 5000 again ( I think)

Judgement Day

Many of the larger IE stations such as Pearse, Connolly, Bray etc have large numbers of staff who for years appear to have absolutely no useful function. Outside the Greater Dublin Area most staff no longer have any function except the occasional cleaning of toilets, tending (in some stations) the flower beds, emptying bins and issuing odd tickets that the 'all singing, all dancing', exceedingly expensive ATVMs cannot handle. In some stations the solitary member of staff on duty sometimes waves a flag to the driver - why is not clear - as in the case of unmanned halts (eg Rathdrum) there is nobody to wave said flag! Many of the remaining rural staff are fully trained signalmen with no future prospects within the company and are just hanging on for the inevitable golden handshake and clock. CIE - Complete Ineptitude Expected.

Cookie_Monster

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

If Romania is anything like Budapest Hungary I could see no reason, every metro / suburban station that i got on / off at had at least 4 kontrol inspectors, these eastern European rail networks date back to Soviet Era where cheap state labour was no object, they are in the real world now..

thats what I thought while reading it, still a kick in the ass to those 10,000 though.

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Mind you they had 7000 staff in 1987, got that down to 4400 by 1996 and then it bloated to 5900 again in 2001 and they have it below 5000 again ( I think)

that's a bit all over the place isn't it

dowlingm

In fairness, I think a lot of the staff increase in IE happened because of Ontrack2000 etc. The problem for IE is they don't get consistent capital funding - here's x hundred million euro, you'll get the same next year. Because the system is dependent on political largesse people leak away during lean years and have to be hired on en masse when the coffers open.

A bit like the health service, a watch needs to be kept on IE for management bloat while more and more halts are de-staffed, so that while more and more bodies are employed the average passenger sees fewer and fewer.

FlameoftheWest

Be interesting to see what Romanian Railways considers "slow" on their knackered track compared to what Irish Rail consider "competitive timings" on their brand new track...

Not much I bet.

carlmango11

FlameoftheWest wrote: »

Be interesting to see what Romanian Railways considers "slow" on their knackered track compared to what Irish Rail consider "competitive timings" on their brand new track...

Not much I bet.

You obviously haven't been to Romania. They're seriously slow... and loud.