Bavaria-Yachtbau: Bavaria in turmoil over job cuts

A report published yesterday evening by Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) Message has probably not only startled the Bavaria management, but also the employees of the Large series shipyard. According to the BR, the company has dismissed 29 of the 550 employees for operational reasons and has also applied for short-time working for the period from June to October. The broadcaster cites information from the shipyard's works council and IG Metall.

The shipyard management denies the report today. Bavaria press spokesman Marcus Schlichting emphasises to YACHT that no applications for short-time working have been made to date.

"What is true," says Schlichting, "is that the shipyard management is currently negotiating a new, flexible working time model with the works council." This has become necessary because the company no longer uses up to 100 temporary workers as it used to, but instead wants to produce with a larger permanent workforce. However, as the order situation is still subject to seasonal fluctuations - the shipyard is naturally busier in the winter months than in the summer months - there is a fluctuating demand for labour, particularly in production.

The company now wants to respond to this with a flexible working time model, but the works council is apparently opposed to this. Bavaria CEO Michael Müller explains:

"We are in the middle of reorganising Bavaria. We are changing and improving the company in many areas, including in order to achieve more flexible production. The aim is to work according to the principle of a breathing factory." He continues: "We are currently discussing the content of the programme with the works council."

According to Schlichting, the shipyard would only have to examine the short-time working option if the works council were to definitively reject a new working time model.

With regard to the redundancies mentioned in the BR report, the press spokesperson also corrects: "Not 29, but 24 employees were made redundant in the course of production optimisation." However, this should not be seen as evidence of a crisis. "On the contrary, we are currently hiring new people in other areas of the company," reports Schlichting.

The production figures stated in the BR report of 350 motorboats and sailing yachts in this financial year (November 2018 to 31 July 2019) and 450 boats planned for the next financial year (1 August 2019 to 31 July 2020) are correct.