Railways announce more job cuts but no redundancies
The Swiss Federal Railways have announced that 1,070 posts are to be cut over the next five years in the rolling stock maintenance division.
At a news conference in Berne, the Federal Railways said no redundancies were expected in the move to reduce staff to 3,600.
At present, 4,700 staff in 30 locations are responsible for the maintenance of some 20,000 locomotives and carriages.
The Federal Railways hope the cuts will lead to savings of some 20 per cent on the total maintenance bill of SFr600 million a year.
The Federal Railways said the maintenance division is to be completely restructured and divided between the Passenger and Cargo divisions.
The Swiss Railway Employees’ Association has criticised the move. “The Swiss Federal Railways should concern themselves with finding new markets, instead of carrying out a policy of staff cuts,” it said in a communiqué.
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