The Polish national rail freight operator PKP Cargo is currently in a desperate financial situation. The company’s Management Board has now decided to fire 30 per cent of the workforce, set at 4,142 people, as of 30 September 2024.
PKP Cargo recently commenced remedial proceedings to carry out a massive restructuring, a procedure which will be overseen by Zimmerman Filipiak, a Polish restructuring advising firm. It is not yet clear if the decision to carry out group layoffs is a consequence of this. Moreover, in June, the company labelled one-third of its workforce as inactive for one year, which means they are not able to work and their pay has been cut by 40 per cent.
In addition to the layoffs and the inactive status initiative, which will affect thousands of employees, PKP Cargo also reached agreements with at least three companies to relocate a few hundred people. First, it was communicated that up to 300 PKP Cargo workers would move to Polregio, a Polish regional passenger operator. Another 400 will be moved to PKP Intercity, the largest passenger operator in Poland. Finally, 300 more will be moved to PKP Intercity Remtrak, the branch of PKP taking care of passenger rolling stock maintenance.
How did we get here?
The current management of PKP Cargo is indicating years of mismanagement as the root cause of the company’s massive losses. One the main reasons was the so-called coal decision, a measure to prioritise rail transport of coal made in 2022. This led the company to lose other contracts, tearing apart the company’s finances. For this, PKP Cargo is now also seeking legal action against their predecessor and Poland’s former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, claiming that their actions constituted a crime.
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