Total port operation
An overall port operation is an amalgamation of the employers 'associations of port handling companies in a port with the port workers' unions represented in the port . The entire port operation serves as a virtual employer for the so-called non - permanent port workers, who are therefore also called overall port workers .
History and Development
In earlier times, port work for companies and port workers involved in handling the port was affected by considerable fluctuations. The order situation for the individual companies operating in the port was heavily dependent on when which ships had to be loaded or unloaded with which type of cargo. The irregularity with which the ships came in and left the port meant a considerable fluctuation in the order situation for the individual companies, which could not be compared with the general long-term economic fluctuation, but was day-dependent for each company. Even if the general order situation for all companies in a port did not fluctuate, this did not mean that individual companies were not at times significantly overemployed and required additional staff at very short notice, while other companies did not receive orders and were unable to employ their existing staff. This led to the fact that the sole proprietorships only employed a very small number of permanent employees, which they could still finance even when there were no orders. In addition, the type of the so-called unreliable port worker developed. These dock workers came to the port every morning to be employed by a sole proprietorship for a day.
This type of recruitment turned out to be disadvantageous for employers and employees :
For the indecent dockworkers, the situation meant that they had no permanent employer. The intermittent port workers could not acquire entitlements as the permanent port workers of the sole proprietorships could: They had no vacation entitlement, no entitlement to public holiday pay and no protection against dismissal, all of which required long-term permanent employment for an employer.
For employers, the inconsistent employment of workers was disadvantageous insofar as there was no permanent staff to fall back on. The particular productivity of individual workers could not be appreciated, as this only becomes apparent over a longer period of time. In addition, the indecent workers were not particularly interested in a company because they were laid off after a short time anyway.
At the turn of the 20th century , inter-company associations of port companies emerged in individual ports, for example in 1892/1906 in Hamburg , 1913 in Emden and 1914 in Bremen . These associations organized the indecent dockworkers and assigned them to sole proprietorships on request. However, this construction was solely dependent on the voluntary commitment of the companies and primarily served the interests of the companies. The social situation of the indecent port workers improved only slightly.
In the time of National Socialism, the 12th ordinance for the implementation of the Law on the Order of National Labor of 1935 created a legal basis for collective port operations : By order of a “ trustee of work ”, all individual operations of a port could be compulsorily combined into one collective port operation. All non-permanent workers in the port were assigned to this fictitious overall port operation as overall port workers and thus as permanent workers. The main purpose of the entire port operation was to control the non-permanent workers employed in a port and to distribute the workforce according to a planned economy. At the same time, however, this construction brought about a significant social improvement for the formerly indecent dockworkers, as they were no longer affected by economic fluctuations and were able to acquire the aforementioned entitlements of permanent workers.
By 1941, total port operations were established in Germany's 19 most important seaports and 8 inland ports.
After the end of the Second World War, the law regulating national labor was repealed by the law of the Allied Control Council and its implementing ordinances . This also affected the 12th Implementing Ordinance and thus the legal basis for the entire port operations.
The structure of the entire port operations, however, had proven to be an adequate social model for the indecent port workers, despite or independently of its basis, which was shaped by National Socialist ideology in the law on the order of national labor . For this reason, Bremen regulations were created as the legal basis for the ports of Bremen in town and the Bremerhaven port operations as early as 1947, and in Hamburg the collective bargaining parties represented in the port agreed to continue operations as a whole on a voluntary, collective bargaining basis.
Current situation
In order to create a legal basis for the entire port operations for the entire federal territory that meets the requirements of the (re) established liberal-democratic basic order, the "Law on the creation of a special employer for port workers (overall port operation)" of August 3, 1950 created. Since then, this law has only been changed editorially.
This law forms the basis for the still existing total port operations, the number of which has been reduced considerably due to technical and economic developments in maritime traffic and port handling. Nevertheless, for example, the general port operations and the general port operations company (GHBG) in Hamburg with still more than 1,000 employees and the GHBV - Gesamtthafenbetriebsverein im Lande Bremen eV with around 1,250 employees (as of 2018) are proof that the construct of Port remains of practical importance. Further port operations exist in Lübeck and Rostock.
The current structure of an overall port operation is based on the following principles:
In contrast to the situation under National Socialist rule, an entire port operation is created through a contractual agreement between employers and employees of a port, each represented by their associations. For ports in which such an agreement similar to a collective agreement has not been concluded, an overall port operation cannot be created by individual state act.
First of all, only those operations in a port belong to the overall port operations, whose entrepreneurs themselves or through their employers' association are involved in the contractual agreement. However, if these companies employ more than half of all port workers working in the respective port in the three months prior to the conclusion of the agreement on the formation of the overall port operation and this is confirmed by the competent authority, then all other port operations in the port are inevitably owned by the overall port on.
The entire port company is the virtual employer in a port, where those dock workers are employed who are not employed by an individual company. The entire port company, which according to the legal regulation is not allowed to pursue any commercial activity, places its overall port workers with the individual member companies as required. Otherwise it serves as a permanent employer for the workers, who can thereby acquire long-term social entitlements. In addition, the entire port operations ensure a guaranteed wage for all port workers.
Although u. U. a compulsion for companies based in a port to belong to the entire port company, on the other hand the entire port company does not hold a monopoly for the services offered by its member companies. A port company as a whole cannot force the shipping companies and forwarding agents using a port to have cargo handling work carried out only by its member companies. In this respect, the entire port operation according to current German law differs fundamentally from a comparable Italian model, which provided for a monopoly for port companies in their respective port and was therefore recognized by the ECJ for violating European antitrust law, against the freedom of movement of goods and against the free movement of workers for Contract has been declared incompatible.
literature
- Assmann, Jürgen: Legal questions about the entire port operation . Diss. Jur., Cologne 1965.
- Weinkopf, Claudia: The entire Hamburg port operations as an example of an industry-specific, cross-company labor pool . Institute for Work and Technology, Science Center North Rhine-Westphalia. Gelsenkirchen 1992.
- Geffken, Rolf : Labor and industrial action in the port. On the history of port work and the port workers' union , Edition Falkenberg, Rotenburg 2015
Individual evidence
- ^ Text of the law on the creation of a special employer for dock workers
- ↑ "About us" on the GHBV website
- ^ Judgment of the European Court of Justice of December 10, 1991 “Merci Convenzionali Porto di Genova SpA v Siderurgica Gabrielli SpA” - Case C-179/90, Collection of the Case Law 1991, page I-05889
