* This story has been amended since it was first published on 18 September under the headline, "Maersk to cut up to a third of its workforce". In the interests of context, the initial story, compiled from information received via reputable news agency, appears below unchanged. This morning, Freight News received the following message from Kerry Rosser, Africa communications manager for the line: "This article is factually incorrect and I would like to have it corrected as I can see that it has been taken from the info published by Reuters.
"A third of the organisation is affected by the changes announced two weeks ago but a third of the workforce is not losing jobs. As was shared by Vincent Clerc, CEO of ocean and logistics at Maersk to Reuters in his interview: 'Some will experience big changes, others small. Some are moving to new jobs, and a smaller number will, unfortunately, become redundant, which we take very seriously.'"
Maersk, which handles roughly one in every five containers shipped worldwide and has been under pressure from investors to streamline operational costs, has announced that up to a third of its workforce will likely be laid off.
This amounts to between 26 000 and 27 000 of its entire staff complement of about 80 000 people.
The Danish line, however, has yet to announce exactly how many jobs will be shed as it strives to appease investors at a time when the impact of Covid-19 is still being felt across the global ocean freight sector.
The line has been under pressure to trim fat since at least 2017 and before, and this resulted in the sale of its oil and gas interests to French multi-national company, Total.
More recently, streamlining at Maersk also led to the phasing out of piggy-back brands such as Damco and Safmarine.
Chief commercial officer Vincent Clerc told news agency Reuters that “simplifying the organisation will regrettably impact jobs due to duplicate roles and roles that will no longer be needed”.
