Bucharest public transport company to fire nearly 800 staff amid debts of RON 3 billion

The Bucharest Public Transport Company (STB), the company operating buses and trams in the capital, issued 796 dismissal notices on Wednesday, November 11, as part of a process to address debts of more than RON 3 billion.

The authority will also eliminate another 919 vacant positions during the restructuring process, according to Remus Borza, a representative of the consortium of judicial administrators comprising Euro Insol, Ceres Insolv, and Turmac Insolvency.

Around 8,428 positions will remain after the restructuring.

“The Bucharest Public Transport Company is going through an extremely difficult period financially, characterised by a very large volume of debts exceeding RON 3 billion, a loss of RON 765 million over the first ten months, and negative net cash flow of RON 67 million. Without optimising labour costs, which currently require an annual financial effort of RON 1.2 billion, representing 70% of total revenues, STB risks bankruptcy,” Borza warned.

The process aims to eliminate positions corresponding to redundant occupations. As such, 24 courier positions, 12 stoker positions out of 88, 17 statistician positions, four manual bookbinder positions, 44 data entry and validation operator positions (secondary education) out of 145, and 13 administrative officer positions (secondary education) are being eliminated.

The redundancies also target the reduction of positions in occupations that are excessively represented in the organisational structure compared with the company's actual needs. As such, 58 cashier positions out of 374, 28 economist and accountant positions out of 293, 37 welder positions out of 138, 69 mechanical fitter positions out of 442, 10 maintenance electrician positions out of 166, 16 car mechanic positions out of 290, 23 dispatcher positions, seven legal adviser positions out of 40, and 30 specialist officer positions out of 109 will be cut.

The restructuring also includes the dismissal of some bus and trolleybus drivers, as well as tram drivers. Some of those eliminated are drivers who have committed disciplinary offences and are under criminal investigation for fuel theft.

In total, 120 dismissal notices were issued to bus and trolleybus drivers out of a total of 3,508, and 50 dismissal notices were issued to tram drivers out of 850 positions.

Borza noted that the dismissals would not affect the transport schedule.

“STB puts around 1,250 buses, trolleybuses and trams into service every day, operated by a total of 4,358 drivers and tram drivers! It follows that the dismissal of 170 drivers and tram drivers does not affect the transport schedule,” the representative of the consortium of judicial administrators said.