PARIS, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Month-long stoppages at rail sector against reform costed France 780 million euros (902.53 million U.S. dollars), Guillaume Pepy, head of the country's rail company SNCF, said on Friday.
"The cost is huge. There are nearly 200 million euros of exceptional repayments that we have decided for all users who have been penalized by the strike," Pepy told news channel CNEWS.
Angry at President Emmanuel Macron's plan to reform the state-run railway operator that would open the sector to competition and end preferential workers' terms, trade unions staged rolling strikes for April to June period with a wave of two successive days out of every five days.
Despite the social action, the reform, which according to Pepy, "is done to offer better rail services to French train users," was adopted by large majority in April.(1 euro = 1.157 U.S. dollar)
