Germany: Transitional Company for Sietas Agreed by Consensus

In a few days, the first installation vessel for offshore wind turbines, designed and built in Germany, will be undocked at the Sietas shipyard in Hamburg. The completion and handover to the renowned Dutch engineering company Van Oord is scheduled for July 2013.

In addition, the insolvent shipyard currently hasn’t got any new contracts. For this reason, the insolvency administrator, IG Metall and the Sietas labour council have jointly determined to enable all 390 employees of the Sietas shipyard to transfer to a transitional company, where the employees will be preparing for up to five months for new tasks.

On March 21, 92 percent of the employees agreed to move to the transitional company in stages. Further training of the current 13 apprentices should be ensured, if necessary, in cooperation with other companies.

The insolvency administrator, the labour council and IG Metall are also working to realize the possibility of a business or even a partial company takeover. The most important condition for this is obtaining a shipbuilding contract.

Insolvency administrator Berthold Brinkmann explains: “The high approval rate of employees underscores the existing agreement. We strive to further contracts and are also in negotiations with potential clients so we see the transitional company as a last resort.”

[mappress]

Offshore WIND Staff, March 26, 2013; Image: sietas-werft