PKP Cargo had employees who worked fake double or even triple jobs. Reportedly, the company dismissed two regional directors involved in the scheme to award some employees unearned salaries. Despite the “irregularities”, the story may have an upside: PKP Cargo may now not need to fire a planned 4,000 employees by simply getting rid of the fictitious jobs.

The two dismissed regional directors may not be the only ones involved, according to Polish publication Onet, and a “purge” among managers may be on the way. It suggests that there is large-scale authority abuse at the company.

The Polish publication says that it reached out to PKP Cargo workers, who sketched a picture of deep-rooted problems at the company: “In our company, the directors of individual plants were ‘moguls’ who had the freedom to hire and fire people, as well as sign contracts. The personnel policy in particular was shocking”, an employee said. According to them, it is an “open secret” that some employees earned favours and received high salaries for no particular reason.

Up to three fake positions

According to Onet, it was a common occurrence for employees to have two or more full-time positions. It cites an illustrative case in Silesia, southern Poland, where an office employee was also registered as a train driver, auditor and mechanic. She received salaries for all four positions.

The claims are backed up by the head of the Polish Trade Union of Railway Engineers, Leszek Miętek. In an interview with publication Rynek Kolejowy, he says that the irregularities do not surprise him.

“I cannot verify how large their scale was”, he says, “because we do not have access to personnel documentation. However, the situation described by Onet does not surprise me. I know that the director of one of the plants in the company kept his wife in a fictitious position, to which she was not appointed, and even paid her bonuses. I have documents confirming this”, he claims.

No need to fire 4,000 people?

Earlier, PKP Cargo announced that it would fire approximately 4,000 employees as a way to save on expenditures. Even though the company is in deep financial trouble and needs to take drastic measures for its future financial health, the announced layoffs were first met with protest from PKP Cargo’s employees. Now, there is an understanding that things need to change, write Polish media.

The employees’ change of heart might stem from the possibility that no one will actually lose their job. Employees of PKP Cargo told Onet that the company will only get rid of the fictitious jobs. According to a document obtained by the publication, this would mean that more than a third of Silesia’s administrative workers are fake, at 127 out of 342 workers. Among mechanics, the number amounts to 187 out of 269 employees. In total, 507 out of 1903 jobs await removal.

However, information about all these jobs being fake is not yet confirmed beyond employee interviews by Onet. It is also unclear if any of these relate to employees being transferred to other companies.

PKP Cargo stated it would “refrain from commenting” on the allegations against the company. However, it admitted that the new management is discovering a “gigantic” amount of irregularities.