FES

Roundtable: “Separation of the public enterprise (PE) Macedonian Railways and its socioeconomic impact”

At the end of March 2007, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and ANS Zeleznicar held a round table on the process of restructuring of the Public Enterprise Macedonian Railways. There were three main goals for this activity:

To get an overview of the situation with the separation of the PE Macedonian Railways.
To exchange the experiences on the transformation of railway enterprises with the neighboring states that have already finished the transformation process.
To facilitate the social dialogue in order to attenuate the social consequences from the planned downsizing of the employed.

Macedonian representatives presented the current situation and the expected changes in the PE Macedonian Railways. The trade union representative from Montenegro reported on the transformation process in their country and the social packages they succeeded to provide for the employees that had to be dismissed. The general manager of the PE Macedonian Railways, who also expressed their openness for cooperation with the trade unions in the process of transformation, presented the process and its planned phases.
The analysis of the current condition of Macedonian Railways and possibilities for development were presented. Experts offered better solutions for railways - through investment and modernization of the railways in MK, not only for the corridor ten. This will be of benefit to the MK transport infrastructure, workers, users of this public service, and it will be environmentally friendly. However, it seems that nobody listens to their analysis and arguments, although the proposed investment is about 70 mil euros, and it will be of a wider benefit to all of the citizens in the state.
It was pointed out that the downsizing of the employees is being planned despite the fact that MR are being profitable and having an increased workload. Furthermore, it was stressed that the planned numbers of employees to be downsized are not realistic because these were planned several years ago, and since than a large number of employees have left the enterprise, whether for retirement or other reasons.
It was concluded that the trade union should ask for a reduction in the number of people to be downsized and actively participate in all of the phases of the transformation. Overall, it was a successful meeting, where trade unions gained useful information and ideas how to position themselves in the upcoming process of transformation.
The official conclusions were:

Macedonian Railways must transform and adjust to the market conditions of working
The value of Macedonian Railways should be determined according to the market conditions, and then through shares should be divided to all of the currently and previously employed in Macedonian Railways.
State institutions should give their opinion on the non-profitable parts of the public enterprise.
Social dialogue is necessary for any further activity related to transformation in order to prevent lack of transparency and the consequences of this lack.

The opening of the infrastructure for the potential operators to be in the moment when our country will become a member of EU, and not before that, as this is the opinion of all the members in SEETO initiative from West Balkans.