Hamburg Stevedore HHLA to End Short Time

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Sep 2010

HHLA, Hamburg's biggest stevedore, will end short time schedules for dockworkers in November following an increase in container traffic at Germany's biggest port. The company cut hours for 2,000 of its 3,500 employees between 10 percent and 100 percent in July 2009 in response to a 33 percent slump in container traffic in the first half of the year. All affected employees, expect those in HHLA's logistics unit, will return to full time work on Nov. 1.
Other German container terminal operators, including Bremen-based Eurogate, and BLG, an automotive stevedore, also introduced short time working during the recession.
HHLA, which is majority owned by the state of Hamburg, said short time working had saved almost four hundred jobs.
The company also enrolled 375 employees, from dockworkers to computer programmers, on vocational training programs to improve their skills.
The German government subsidized HHLA employees’ loss of earnings under a national scheme aimed at protecting jobs and safeguarding skills.
"We have managed to bridge crisis intelligently," said Heinz Brandt, HHLA board member for human resources.
"With the introduction of short time work, we were able to secure employment and retain know-how in the company. At the same time, with the vocational training offensive we have equipped our staff for the future challenges of port logistics."
"That way we have boosted our competitiveness," Brandt said.
HHLA's traffic in Hamburg and at its terminal in Odessa, Ukraine, slumped by 32.9 percent in 2009 to 4.6 million 20-foot equivalent units from 7.6 million TEUs in 2008.
Traffic grew 8.9 percent in the second quarter of 2010 from the year earlier period to 2.42 million TEUs following a 0.5 percent rise in the first quarter, prompting HHLA to forecast double digit growth for the full year.

Source: Journal of Commerce