Germany will bring in foreign workers to end the chaos at its airports, which face understaffing and string of cancellations ahead of the holidays, ministers announced on Sunday.
“
The government plans to allow the entry of urgently needed foreign personnel for temporary work in Germany
,” Labor Minister Hubertus Heil told the Sunday edition of the daily
Bild.
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“
Employers must pay a conventional wage and provide decent housing for the temporary period
,” continued the Social Democrat Minister, assuring that it was not “
social dumping
”.
The government did not specify how many foreigners would be invited to go and reinforce airport workers, but according to
Bild
the number could reach "
four figures
", or at least a thousand.
Rapid recovery from the pandemic
As in many other European airports, the resumption of air traffic after two years of disruption linked to the Covid pandemic has not yet been accompanied by the hiring of new agents.
Added to this situation are absences linked to the resumption of Covid-19 contamination.
German airports currently lack around 7,200 professionals, according to a study by the Institute for German Economics.
This lack leads to cascading flight cancellations, in particular by the German company Lufthansa, and long queues at security checks.
The Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faisait, for her part assured in
Bild
that there would be “
no concessions
” in terms of security, specifying that these “
auxiliaries coming from abroad (would be) hired, for example, to baggage handling
.
This situation causes a "
violent nuisance
" for travellers, deplored the Minister of Consumer Protection, Steffi Lemke (Greens), who says "
expect airlines to fulfill their legal obligations and to satisfy legitimate requests passengers quickly and without bureaucracy
".
It thus recalls that airlines have an obligation to inform travelers of their rights and that passengers are entitled to compensation in the event of cancellation or last-minute delay.
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Detlef Kayser, a member of the Lufthansa management board, however, dampened hopes in the
Welt
daily , warning that "
unfortunately it will hardly be possible to achieve a short-term improvement now, that is to say in the summer
" .
.
"
We expect the situation to normalize again in 2023
," said the Lufthansa official, who has cut more than 2,000 flights in recent weeks.