Enlarge image
A Deutsche Bahn train in Berlin: “This is the emergency brake in the company”
Photo: Nadja Wohlleben / REUTERS
The expensively achieved agreement with the GDL and the rapidly increasing mountain of debt are apparently having initial consequences: According to company circles, Deutsche Bahn intends to embark on a severe austerity course. “A hiring freeze and an almost group-wide spending freeze are being prepared,” a company representative told the Reuters news agency.
According to SPIEGEL information, the hiring freeze does not affect the operational area of the company, but rather the administrative level. Elsewhere in the company it was said that the group holding company was primarily affected, but the subsidiaries were also included. 250 million euros should be saved on long-distance transport in order to achieve the goals for 2024.
"There is no decision by the group's board of directors yet," a company spokeswoman told SPIEGEL and emphasized: "Investments in the strong rail are continuing, and this also applies to hiring in the operational area." There they will continue to employ "full company staff." « recruit.
Measures to control spending and hiring with a focus on corporate administration are being prepared. “Some business areas have already made progress,” the company spokeswoman continued. She blamed “a number of external factors” for the poorer economic start to 2024.
"Against this background, the DB Group is preparing a common framework that ensures that the group management also makes its contribution," she told SPIEGEL. »The majority of the planned measures will be decided and implemented decentrally under the responsibility of the business areas and in a differentiated manner.«
The company pulls the “emergency brake”
The so-called qualified hiring freeze means that new appointments and, above all, new positions must be approved by the group management, it was said. While train drivers will continue to be hired, the company's administration should be streamlined. With the qualified expenditure ban, all extra expenses throughout the group, including business trips, should also have to be approved by the group management. “This is the emergency brake in the company,” said a company representative.
This would ultimately affect all of the railway's business areas in Germany, but not the international subsidiary Schenker, which is up for sale. According to company circles, the projects in the rail network and the key investment decisions this year should be implemented as planned.
This was preceded by an almost five-month struggle between the railways and GDL to reach an agreement in the collective bargaining dispute. Mediation failed, but at the end of the tough negotiations, Claus Weselsky's union was able to achieve a great success: the implementation of the 35-hour week with equal pay.
eru/fin/Reuters