“SNCB employees are not overpaid but they are working too few hours relative to their income’’, claims Jo Cornu in an interview published on Tuesday by De Standaard and Het Nieuwsblad. “On average an employee costs the company 60,000 euros a year. This figure is no higher than in other companies”, explains Jo Cornu. “It is not that workers are costing us too much, but that they are not working enough hours for the salary they get”, he adds.
Employees work a 36-hour week at the SNCB and are allowed some compensation time off.
Theoretically unions are not against a longer work week, “as long as wages are re-assessed accordingly”, says Pierre Goosens of the socialist union.
Jo Cornu also confirmed that future wild cat strikes by SNCB employees will be dealt with more harshly.
(Source: Belga)
