LHG Lübeck with New Collective Agreement for Employees

The Lübeck Port Company (LHG) and the union ver.di have reached an agreement on a new collective agreement for the commercial employees after long and extremely difficult negotiations. The table-effective increase will take place over a two-year period in three stages: Starting from June 1, 2022, there will be an average increase of 4.8 percent, an additional 2.4 percent from March 1, 2023, and another 2.4 percent from September 1, 2023.

(Lübeck) The ver.di members overwhelmingly approved the proposal in yesterday’s vote. With this agreement, the negotiating partners were able to avert a labor dispute.

This collective agreement must be viewed against the backdrop of the business development of the LHG. Under the future security agreement, the employees’ waiver of their wage components will automatically expire. At the same time, the LHG has to cope with a continuous decline in the forestry products sector and the cessation of all services to Russia. Numerous countermeasures have been taken and are showing partial effects. This is particularly true for the restructuring of the Nordlandkai.

Do Not Endanger the Port’s Performance

Sebastian Jürgens, managing director of the LHG, comments: “In these difficult times, it was important for us not to endanger the performance of the port. Reliability and quality of handling are indispensable for our customers. The management is now called upon to consistently work on further consolidating the LHG to ensure the company’s profitability. Maintaining competitiveness remains the top priority in the interest of the LHG and the location.”

Photo: © René Schlottmann