Finnish railway operator to slash 370 jobs

Finnish state-owned railway operator VR Group announced on Wednesday that it plans to reduce its workforce by 370 positions.

In a press release issued on Wednesday, VR Group declared up to 214 jobs will be further slashed in the second round of redundancies in addition to 157 layoffs announced November last year.

It will also change the terms of some contracts and impose temporary unpaid leaves to some train drivers. A total of 2,800 employees will be involved in the cooperation negotiations.

The company said the aim of the staff reduction is to improve cost efficiency in order to strengthen the competitiveness of passenger transport and to carry out the price reform of train tickets profitably.

In addition to the redundancies, 40 percent of offices for train conductors will be shut down.

At the beginning of this week, some train stations between the capital of Helsinki and Turku as well as St Petersburg of Russia were closed, as faster connections have been launched by VR Group.

Founded in 1862, VR Group currently employs about 9,000 workers.

Since 2013, the company has been mired in financial troubles with its turnovers continuously declining, due to pressure imposed by low-cost bus operators, dramatic decrease of Russian passengers caused by the economic recession in Russia and its own structural problems.

In its 2015 financial statement published earlier this month, VR Group's operation profit dropped by nearly 30 percent and its turnover reduced by 7.5 percent compared with 2014. Endit