MOSCOW, December 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s state-owned railway company said Wednesday that it is placing more than one-quarter of its staff on part-time schedules to cut costs.
Russian Railways’ decision to move 27 percent of its employees to a shorter working week was a better alternative to granting them unpaid leave, company president Vladimir Yakunin said.
Yakunin, speaking on the Russian Railways television channel, blamed the move on the worsening economic climate and said cuts would leave employees involved in transportation and security largely unaffected.
Russian Railways currently employs around one million people.
President Vladimir Putin in November told Russian Railways, along with other government monopolies – including gas giant Gazprom, pipeline operator Transneft and power company Rosseti – to slash operating costs by 10 percent annually up until 2017.
The companies were ordered to submit their plans on reducing expenditures to the Economic Development Ministry by December 10.
The government has also decided to freeze tariffs on state-regulated utilities like gas and electricity, as well as prices for rail travel in 2014 in the hope of easing pressure on household budgets.
