Careers
NS offers its employees a wide variety of options to advance their career and progress within the company. In 2024, 328 staff completed a career orientation programme (2023: 432). This programme is also available to Retail employees. Through the online Career Platform, in addition to career coaching, we offer employees a new talent scan, a labour market consultation and a CV check, among other things.
A total of 2,870 staff have moved on to other positions within the company. For instance, in 2024, 59 main guards transferred to the position of train driver and 45 staff became main guards.
Redundancies and employment guarantee
In the event of organisational developments that have consequences for staff, NS ensures they receive guidance from an early stage in finding new employment within or outside NS. We do this to prevent redundancies. These employees come under the anticipatory job mobility measure and are entitled to benefit from the Social Plan under the Collective Labour Agreement. In 2024, no employees came under the anticipatory job mobility measure and one employee became redundant. That means a total of 29 people were redundant on 1 January 2024 and were covered by the employment guarantee scheme.
Industrial relations and employment conditions
New employment conditions were agreed in 2024 for the more than 17,000 colleagues covered by the NS Collective Labour Agreement and for the around 200 colleagues with an individual employment contract. 99% of all employees of NS Group were covered by a collective labour agreement in 2024. The other employees (those with an individual employment contract) have individual employment conditions which are, however, aligned with the NS Collective Labour Agreement when it comes to sick pay and pension accrual.
At the end of the first quarter of 2024, a collective labour agreement was concluded with a term from 1 January 2024 to 1 March 2025. The CLA contains new agreements on a wide range of aspects of the employment contract, such as pay, allowances and rosters. It also includes some simplifications of complex schemes and some breakthroughs on long-running debates such as the recognition of onerous working conditions, a broadening of night shift exemptions and the contracts of temporary employees.
The employment conditions for employees who do not fall under the Collective Labour Agreement have also changed. The individual employment contract conditions had a variable remuneration component of 10% to 20% of the annual salary. NS no longer considered this appropriate due to the public nature of the organisation. Variable remuneration was abolished and the employee benefits package was redefined, with NS again choosing median market level as a basis for salaries and increasing the weighting of the public sector in the market benchmark.