THE PLANNED mass layoffs of more than 4,000 employees in the three state-controlled railway companies have been postponed. The Ministry of Transport, Construction and Regional Development must first elaborate and submit to cabinet a recovery plan for the loss-making railway companies, the SITA newswire reported.
Prime Minister Iveta Radičová instructed Transport Minister Ján Figeľ to halt all plans for layoffs of railway employees until a plan to revitalise the railway companies is approved.
SITA wrote that Radičová made her decision after she was informed by the head of the railway trade union, František Petroci, about the union’s negative attitude toward the announced redundancies unless the Transport Ministry elaborated a revitalisation program that would support the development of railway transport in Slovakia.
“Layoffs are the last resort solution,” the Transport Ministry’s spokesperson, Martin Krajčovič, told SITA.
