OREANDA-NEWS. On June 17, 2009 in Moscow a meeting was held between Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin and representatives of the company’s labour organizations, reported the press-centre of Russian Railways.

The meeting was also attended by more than 350 employees from seventeen railways in Russia, representatives of the Council of the Federation and the Transport Committee of the Russian State Duma, members of the board and company vice presidents.

The Russian Railways head spoke of the real state of affairs at the company, the anti-crisis programme and proposed social support measures for employees.

Vladimir Yakunin said that the crisis had not passed the company by. According to forecasts by the Ministry of Economic Development, in 2009 the company’s volume of traffic could fall by 19% against 2008.

“From an economic point of view, at the present time we have to lay off 180,000 workers. But the company board has taken a strategic decision to preserve the workforce as much as possible, avoid mass redundancies and think of the future so as to enter the post-crisis period when traffic will increase with the necessary staff contingent.”

As a result of this decision, 53,700 company employees are to be made redundant in 2009.

“This is not a reduction of the workforce, rather a reduction in the number of company employees that is the result mainly of people leaving and retiring of their own free will,” underlined Vladimir Yakunin.