Rail unions fear a thousand jobs could go at the Dutch national railway company NS after a confidential report on the state-owned enterprise said it could make savings totalling €100m.

Advice group The Hackett Group was brought in by NS management to assess where cuts could be made. It concluded the cost of support services – such as the personnel department, IT and finance – could be brought down by 30%, the AD reports on Friday.

The Nasdaq-listed Hackett Group describes itself as a global strategic business advisory and operations improvement consulting firm. The NS is 100% state-owned.

Jobs

The FNV union federation says it fears this means large-scale redundancies, although the NS has dismissed this as scare-mongering.

The railway company said the goal is to create a company which is ‘flexible and lean and to continue improving and renewing on a structural basis.’

The plans still have to be worked out in detail and their impact on the personnel assessed, the AD says.

The CNV has also raised the alarm about perceived impending changes at the NS, and repeatedly asked for clarification during the ongoing pay talks, Nos television said.