Since 1994, the first stage of reforming and gradually privatising the federal railway system in Germany has been implemented. This has included the transformation of the federal railways in eastern and western Germany into a public company, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), and its reorganisation into several divisions free to operate competitively in the transport market under their own responsibility. On 9 September 1999, DB presented a /Report on personnel and social issues, 1994-8/ (Personal- und Sozialbericht 1994-8) which describes important industrial relations and employment developments.
In September 1999, Germany's Deutsche Bahn (DB) railway company presented a report on the personnel and social issues which have arisen in the privatisation process since 1994. DB's substantial workforce reductions have been criticised by the rail workers' union GdED.
Since 1994, the first stage of reforming and gradually privatising the federal railway system in Germany has been implemented. This has included the transformation of the federal railways in eastern and western Germany into a public company, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), and its reorganisation into several divisions free to operate competitively in the transport market under their own responsibility. On 9 September 1999, DB presented a Report on personnel and social issues, 1994-8 (Personal- und Sozialbericht 1994-8) which describes important industrial relations and employment developments.
According to this report, DB has reduced its workforce by 120,000 employees in the past five years to stand at fewer than 245,000 employees today. Total labour costs were cut by DEM 4.4 billion while sales increased by DEM 1.1 billion, so that value-added per employee rose by about 20%. In presenting the report, Horst Föhr, personnel executive officer at DB, pointed out that employment could be reduced without dismissals and that the successful adjustment was made possible by cooperation with trade unions and works councils. While overall employment levels have continuously fallen, new jobs have been created in hitherto underdeveloped areas such as customer services, and more than 12,000 young employees have been hired after successfully completing vocational training. Mr Föhr demanded greater flexibility of pay and work organisation and further productivity increases in the coming years, in order to make DB more competitive.
The railway workers' union (Gewerkschaft der Eisenbahner Deutschlands, GdED), however, made clear that breaking up existing uniform framework agreements on working conditions and reducing pay for some workers would not be acceptable (DE9905110N). The union also criticised the employment reductions at DB as excessive, and pointed out that more than 6 million overtime hours are now being worked and that at least 1,500 additional employees would be necessary to halve the overtime load. Norbert Hansen, chair of GdED, demanded a halt to employment reductions until DB's widely criticised performance, punctuality and services improved.
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Eurofound (1999), Personnel issues examined at Deutsche Bahn AG, article.
