I got this off comp.risks. Interesting group! Date: 9 Feb 1995 17:02:43 GMT From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Debora Weber-Wulff) Subject: German Railway Wage Woes Debora Weber-Wulff, Technische Fachhochschule Berlin, FB Informatik, Luxemburger Str. 10, 13353 Berlin, Germany [EMAIL PROTECTED] There was an article on the business page of the "Tagespiegel" this morning on the problems plaguing the German railway company. I had meant to post the problems to risks when it began, but you know how it goes.... So anyway, it is now the fourth month that the railway has not correctly met its payroll because of software problems and the natives, er, workers are rather restless. The railway has just recently been privatized and the employees transferred from civil service to private contracts. Calculating a civil service payroll in Germany is not for the faint at heart, there are all sorts of little additions and deductions. The unions had insisted that the pay remain more or less the same, and worked out a new, different but still complicated schedule of pay adjustments. Now the fun begins. Some people don't get paid at all. One who now longer works for the railway received a notice that he owes them 1.61 DM. Many people that normally make 3000-4000 DM a month receive only 900. And then there are the apprentices who normally make just 1000 a month - they seem to be getting somewhere on the order of 15000 DM a month... interestingly enough, the Bahn manages to call the overpayments back lickety split. The other direction is not so easy. Last month they offered to give everyone 2000 DM extra until everything gets straightened out. That didn't work either, with some being asked to pay the Bahn money and others having big payroll deductions wipe most of it out. What did the Bahn do? Amazingly, this is being programmed in-house. And since there is no responsible leader of the programming department (!), they have hired someone for that job (probably so that they can fire him next month...). "It's just a software problem" they say. And the payroll is so large, it cannot be done by hand. Employees are being asked to keep track of what they get and what they think they should get. [Ah, did I mention, they jacked up the prices for travelling by train the beginning of February? That's another story, but I think I know what they need the money for now....] [I suppose if they get rid of the new leader, we have a Bahn-fire of the Sanities? PGN] -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
