Strike in Bulgarian Railways Ends, Trains Run on Schedule
Bulgarian indebted railway operator BDZ said its trains are running according to schedule after a month-long strike came to an end.
The company's management and trade unions reached an agreement on a collective employment contract over the weekend.
The railway workers protested for 24 days against the planned cuts of 2,000 jobs and 150 trains. The lay-offs should be completed by early 2012 and should affect the company's passenger and freight transport divisions, BDZ said at the end of November. The company estimates the annual financial effect from the planned redundancies at around 23 million levs.
A total of 1,050 workers have accepted a severance package of six monthly salaries, local Capital Daily reported.
BDZ's losses from the strike exceed 2.5 million levs ($1.66 million/1.27 million euro), state-run news agency BTA quoted transport minister Ivailo Moskovski as saying.