Norwegian yards recruit imported labour

Norwegian shipbuilding industry is recovering from last year’s slump, but Norwegian workers who were laid off are not being re-hired. Instead, the yards are employing cheaper labour from Poland according to local sources. .

Around 100 former shipyard workers are registered as unemployed in the main Sunnmoere ship building district, while around the same number has been brought in from Poland.

Union leader Per Olav Heggem, accuses the yards of practicing what he calls “social dumping”, in order to increase profits. The shipbuilding industry, on the other hand, claim that by using labour from low cost countries secures new contracts. According to a spokesman from Ulstein Yards, if they were to use only Norwegian labour then the consequences would have been fewer orders. The alternative would have been to subcontract parts of the production to yards abroad.