Passenger rail service in Kosovo was suspended on Monday, November 9, after employees of the public company Infrakos went on strike. They are demanding pay raises and wage indexation and have also expressed dissatisfaction with working conditions.
The disruption has affected the Pristina–Peja line, the only regular passenger route operating in the country. As a result, people traveling on this route have been left without rail transport.
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Trainkos said the train scheduled to depart Pristina at 07:50 stopped in Fushë Kosovë and did not complete its journey. The cause was Infrakos’s suspension of infrastructure services, according to Radio Free Europe. Without those services, other trains cannot operate either.
Employee representatives are calling for wages to be indexed across all categories, taking qualifications, responsibilities and job positions into account. Hysen Nikqi, a member of the Infrakos Strike Council, told Radio Free Europe that dissatisfaction has deepened since the minimum wage was raised to 500 euros in July this year.
According to Nikqi, other employees’ wages have not risen proportionally. This has narrowed the pay differences between positions at the company: the current gap between engineers and technical or service workers is too small to reflect their responsibilities.
Infrakos has around 200 employees. In addition to changes in pay, the union is seeking an increase in meal allowances and retroactive payment for the past three months. Employees say the strike will continue until their demands receive a concrete response.
According to union representatives, the work stoppage was announced during a protest on October 26 outside the railway station in Fushë Kosovë. At that protest, employees also demanded better working conditions and greater workplace safety.
By the time Radio Free Europe published its report, Infrakos management had not responded to questions about employees’ average wages or possible ways to resolve the situation. The disruption comes as Kosovo’s railways continue to contend with aging infrastructure, a lack of investment and delays in rehabilitation projects.
