Albanian Railways is affected by collective staff cuts

The yard of the General Directorate of Railways in Durrës is empty, not only because of the high temperatures. Some of the staff have been called to the Ministry of Infrastructure in Tirana, while the rest are locked in offices, mainly for meetings.

At the beginning of last week, the staff of this directorate was cut by 50 employees out of a total of 445 – or more than 10 percent of the total.

Col. Caka from the northern area of ​​Bajza in Shkodra is one of the employees who received the dismissal order.

"The decision to dismiss was made in October last year, and according to what is written in the preliminary notice of termination of employment, this decision is related to the new organizational structure," he told BIRN.

The General Directorate of Railways justifies the collective layoffs with the reform for the restructuring of the railway sector in the country, current projects, and the difficult financial situation of the company.

Some of the employees have left due to the temporary interruption of activity on the Vorë-Hani i Hotit segment, which will undergo rehabilitation, while the rest due to the end of the train movement calendar on the Shkodër - Gjorm line due to the pilgrimage to the church of Shna Ndout.

“This procedure is a decision of the Supervisory Council of the Albanian Railways sh.a. company, which is based on the legal criteria and the reasons mentioned above, including the economic-financial situation and the temporary cessation of activity…,” the railway said in a response to BIRN.

Railway executives say that the company has taken over the financial treatment of employees, according to the legislation in force, and that representatives of the Transport Union were also present during the communications.

"The railway was built mainly with wings. Times have changed and especially the new Durrës-Tirana line that is being completed requires qualified personnel," says Sokol Popoçi, director of Infrastructure,

The Albanian Railway owns about 395 kilometers of line in total, but currently only the Durrës-Elbasan segment is operational. The construction of new lines, such as the Tirana-Durrës one, requires qualified staff, the number of which will be reduced.

Engineer Tritan Kaduku, who worked for more than 20 years at the Albanian Railway before emigrating, told BIRN that this process is long overdue.

"The layoffs in the early '90s were massive and agreements between the parties were extremely difficult. Reducing the number of employees also eased the wage bill, just like now," says Kaduku.

One of the former railway executives, who asked not to be identified, links the occasional cuts in the railway to the decline in the efficiency of train transport after the 1990s.

This also led to a decline in the salary fund, forcing the managers to find a solution by reducing the number of employees. This is a recurring phenomenon and the status of the joint-stock company facilitated the decision-making of the Board of Directors on changes in the work structure.

The layoffs that have recently affected the personnel of the Albanian Railways have been partially made known to the public, but the managers say that they will soon have a more complete communication on this topic./ BIRN