EVR Cargo to lay off 25 at Muuga depot, head office
Citing a 26% drop in freight volumes, Estonian state-owned rail cargo operator EVR Cargo is about to make up to 25 employees redundant at its Muuga depot just outside Tallinn. It will also relocate a big portion of the operations of the depot to Tapa, some 80 km to the East.
EVR Cargo is about to reduce the number of jobs related to the servicing of engines at the Muuga depot, which is part of its objective to cut labor costs by 11%, the company's chairman of the management board, Raul Toomsalu, told the Baltic News Service on Thursday.
He said the changes would also affect jobs in the company's head office.
The maintenance of large engines is to be relocated fully from Muuga to Tapa. "The operations to remain in Muuga are the small-scale servicing and repair of engines of EVR Cargo, and the manning of engines to avoid idle runs to Tapa for a change of crew," Toomsalu said.
He said that since keeping both facilities fully operational was affecting efficiency, the consolidation of certain activities was necessary. Reduced freight volumes required one-third fewer engines to handle shipments. The number of employees at EVR Cargo, meanwhile, so far had not been reduced.
BNS reported at the beginning of April that the volume of Russian transit through Estonia had halved to six pairs of trains per day, from 12 pairs of trains previously.
EVR Cargo handled 2.56 million tons of freight in the first quarter of this year, 26% less than in the same three months in 2015. Cargo handling declined in all categories save for bulk and chemical goods.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS
