02. 07. 10. - 15:00

Lopatka calls for ÖBB pay freeze

People’s Party’s (ÖVP) financial affairs state secretary Reinhold Lopatka has launched a fresh attack on Austrian Railways (ÖBB) bosses.

Lopatka said today (Fri) the firm – which is close to the state – needed to intensify its attempts to get back in the black.

The state secretary suggested a payment freeze for ÖBB’s staff, claiming they had been treated to 239 Euros more wage rises than public servants over the past two and a half years.

Lopatka also said the company’s employees should improve in its internal payment pyramid every third years instead of every one and a half years.

The former ÖVP general secretary stressed the coalition agreement with the Social Democrats (SPÖ) from 2008 planned to "significantly increase the ÖBB’s productivity".

Lopatka is one of the most outspoken critics of developments at ÖBB. Most members of the firm’s board and supervisory board are linked to the SPÖ.

The state secretary claimed all of his appeals to ÖBB chiefs to work more efficiently and cut costs sensibly had gone unheard.

ÖBB’s operating profit had been 121 million Euros in 2009 after it suffered 970 million Euros losses in the previous year.

Lopatka said it was "unacceptable" that ÖBB’s employees retired with an average age of 52. SPÖ Infrastructure Minister Doris Bures recently pledged to raise the average pension age from 2011 – by just one year annually.

Josef Bucher, head of the opposition Alliance for the Future of Austria (BZÖ), meanwhile suggested the government should privatise parts of the company to get it back on track.

Christian Kern, who took office as ÖBB head last month, is meanwhile facing new competition as Hans Peter Haselsteiner presented details of his ambitious railway project.

Haselsteiner – who heads market-leading building firm Strabag – said he had teamed up with former Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) boss Benedikt Weibel to get his WestBahn project underway.

The private railway service will start operating between Vienna and Salzburg from December 2011.

Haselsteiner said he was ready to invest 130 million Euros in the project.