About half of the roughly 10,000 employees of Bucharest's public transport operator STB have family ties to one another, according to a report on the company's insolvency presented by the judicial administrator. The document identifies the collective labour agreement as the main cause of the company's financial difficulties, pointing to a payroll structure that absorbs most of the firm's income.
According to the report, 4,876 employees have family connections, and about 1,400 of them are spouses. The payroll fund amounts to roughly 106 million lei a month, with an average gross salary of about 10,700 lei. Around 80% of the company's revenue goes towards salaries. The report also notes that drivers earned around 18,000 lei net per month in the summer of 2026, a figure that the document presents as part of the wider imbalance between income and costs.
The agreement sets out 36 bonuses, allowances and premiums, which the administrator links to the company's cost problems. The report also highlights high levels of sick leave. In 2025, employees took 176,773 days of sick leave, equivalent to roughly 484 years in total. Drivers averaged about 60 sick-leave days each, at a cost of around 55 million lei. Half of all sick leave was clustered on Mondays, according to the document. Over the same year, employees took 321,706 vacation days.
The report also points to revenue shortfalls and unpaid debts. It estimates that the 2025 service was undercompensated by about 247 million lei. Receivables total around 610 million lei, and Bucharest City Hall owes the largest share, about 423 million lei. Free travel for pensioners costs about 24.6 million lei a month, while the ticket price has remained unchanged since 2021 despite significant increases in operating costs.
Since the company entered insolvency, its staff has been reduced by 1,709 positions, including 796 dismissal notices. Executive posts have been cut from 163 to 119, a reduction of 44. A new collective labour agreement was signed on 26 September and runs until September 2027. It reduces severance pay and bonuses, a change that the administrator says will save tens of millions of lei. Several contracts have also been renegotiated or cancelled, including a deal with Daimler that is expected to save around 68 million lei.
On the creditor side, 244 creditors have had claims admitted totalling about 1.63 billion lei out of 3 billion lei. The report also sets out proposals that would affect passengers directly. These include raising the single fare from 3 to 5 lei and the monthly pass from 80 to 100 lei, ending free travel for pensioners whose pensions exceed 3,000 lei, and halting night transport while keeping a single line to Otopeni airport. Digitisation measures are also proposed, including electronic route sheets, card top-ups and ticket sales through a taxi app.
It remains uncertain whether the proposed changes to fares and benefits will be approved. The report sets out the financial case for them, but the decisions rest with the relevant authorities and the course of the insolvency process.