A.P. Moller – Maersk to sack about 200 Danish crew

A.P. Moller – Maersk to sack about 200 Danish crew

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A.P. Moller – Maersk said today it will layoff about 200 Danish chief stewards and ratings working aboard its Denmark-flagged container and tanker vessels and replace them with cheaper international crew.
   Last month, Eivind Kolding, chief executive officer of Maersk Line, the world’s biggest container shipping line, announced that the company will sack up to 3,000 of its staff as part of a new strategy designed to reverse the company’s fortunes. Most of those redundancies were expected to come from middle management.
   “In order to return to profitability, A.P. Moller – Maersk is focusing on being competitive and cost effective. The process also encompasses our Technical Organization responsible for crewing on Danish vessels, and our findings show that we need to make some significant changes relating to the shipboard operation and the cost of operating under Danish flag,” A.P. Moller – Maersk said in a statement.
   The Copenhagen-based company said the move is the result of the internationalization of seafarers over the last few years with foreign crews now offering a “qualified alternative” to Danish seafarers. “Today we have to hire seafarers based on cost competitiveness,” it said.
   Negotiations with Danish seafarer organizations on conditions are now taking place with most of the dismissals for the ratings expected to take effect within six months. For the chief stewards the process will be ongoing into 2009, although Maersk said it would try to find them other positions within the group.
   The company added that the decision does not impact the recruitment of Danish cadets. “We still need to employ all the cadets we can get.”