Sep 30, 2007, 8:08 GMT
Berlin - Germany's state-owned rail company Deutsche Bahn is planning to hire foreign train drivers to cushion the effects of a national rail strike expected next week, a press report said Sunday.
The newspaper Bild am Sonntag said train drivers from Austria and Switzerland could be approached if the militant GDL drivers' union goes ahead with industrial action.
The union is expected to announce strike plans on Monday, following the breakdown of pay talks with Deutsche Bahn last week.
'We plan to hire locomotive drivers from other countries such as Austria and Switzerland to help out,' one of the rail operator's senior managers told the newspaper.
He said Deutsche Bahn had drawn up contingency plans to ensure that services were disrupted as little as possible by the strike. The GDL is seeking a 30-per-cent pay hike in a wage deal separate from the 4.5-per-cent rise agreed with Transnet and the GDBA, two other unions representing the bulk of Deutsche Bahn staff.
The rail operator offered the same terms to GDL, but also higher overtime pay, leading to a further rise of 5.5 per cent. The package meant a 10-per-cent rise in total, Deutsche Bahn officials said.
The GDL called its 15,000 drivers out in brief warning strikes in early August, but then agreed on a month-long no-strike period while mediation took place. That period runs out Sunday.
The damaging strike, the first major stoppage at DB in 15 years, looms as the German parliament debates a controversial bill to part- privatize the national rail company, while retaining the track and signalling in state hands.
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