Fritz Ganzhorn, secretary general for the Danish Maritime Officers Association, said in an interview with AmericanShipper.com that the company is seeking to replace about a quarter of the Danish officers who work on Maersk containerships with foreign workers from Asia. The workers are being offered early retirements. He said the program did not include Maersk tankers or oil field supply boats that the company operates, he said. All told, he estimated Maersk employs about 2,000 Danish officers.
Ganzhorn said the layoffs are disappointing and that he expected interest in the layoffs by Danish politicians because there have been efforts in recent years to recruit young Danes into the shipping industry.
“They are capsizing that policy,” he said.
He said Maersk is targeting junior officers, and keeping Danish masters and senior officers on many of the ships. He said this might make it difficult in the future to replace those senior officers with Danes.
