South Caucasus Railway CJSC comments on protest of its staff

South Caucasus Railway (SCR) Company has provided explanations over the partial disruption of work by a group of employees of the Gyumri city locomotive depot of SCR on April 25. The employees themselves called that action a ‘warning strike’.

“During the unauthorized action a group of employees demanded a pay rise and improvement of working conditions, saying that their wages were considerably reduced in February and March.

We should note that in March 2014 the rise in wages of engine drivers of the Gyumri locomotive depot amounted to 51% compared to February. Their wages made 280,000 drams, increasing by 18% on March 2013.

It is worth stressing that the work load declined by 11.5% in the first quarter of 2014 compared with the same quarter of 2013, first of all due to a decline in cargo traffic, which led to a situation when 10 engine crews were not in demand due to the absence of work.

Yet SCR, being a socially oriented company, does not resort to a stuff reduction and expects cargo traffic to grow in the summer.
In connection with a decline of freight operation in 2013 and the first quarter of 2014, the company took a decision to reduce bonus payments so as to avoid a reduction of the company stuff. For example, employees of the SCR central department did not receive the full amount of their bonuses this year.

As regards improvement of working conditions, it should be noted that following the reconstruction that finished in 2013, the locomotive depot is a modern machine building complex.

In conclusion, we would like to urge the employees of the Gyumri locomotive depot to use more restrained methods of informing the management about their problems. Such an approach will allow us to jointly overcome difficulties, which are undoubtedly of a temporary nature”.