South Caucasus Railways company downplays recent media reports that it fired 353 workers this year

YEREVAN, May 22. /ARKA/. The South Caucasus Railways company downplayed recent media reports that it has fired 353 workers this year.

In a press release sent to ARKA, the Russia-run company said it had 4,321 workers as of January 1, 2011, whose number reduced to 4,095 on January 1, 2012. It said the figure- 335- resulted from a comparison between the data of the State Revenue Committee for the first quarter of this year and the data for the previous year. 

“As a matter of fact, annual indicators were opposed to quarterly numbers,” the company said.

In a further explanation the company said 20 workers retired this year.

“It should also be mentioned that the company takes care of its former workers’ fate,” the company said. “In particular, the company helped 62 employees dismissed since the beginning of this year to find jobs in other organizations which provide outsourcing-based services to South Caucasus Railways.”

Besides, the company has completed reorganization of its structure by consolidating industrial enterprises. Such measures speeded up optimization of the personnel and enhanced effectiveness of resources usage. 

“The South Caucasus Railways company had 4,148 jobs, and the actual number of its employees is 3,975,” the company said. “Thanks to development of railway infrastructure, the personnel at its partner companies, which produce goods and provide services to railways, are growing from year to year. More than 1,900 new jobs were created in 26 companies in recent three years.”

South Caucasus Railways is a 100% subsidiary of state-run Russian Railways that was awarded a concessional management of SCR. The 30 year contract was signed in 2008. It can be prolonged for another 10 years.-0-