Airport employee crisis: Germany to relax immigrants' labour rules

Germany is to ease the rules on employing foreign workers to deal with a ground staff crisis at its airports.

Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, stated this on Wednesday in Berlin, as the summer holiday season sets in.

"We will facilitate companies in employing assistance from abroad, in particular from Turkey,'' Faeser said after the Cabinet agreed on a set of proposals.

She emphasised that security and reliability requirements would however, be maintained.

Germany, along with other European countries, is facing a shortage of ground staff working in baggage handling and security roles at its airports.

Lengthy queues, chaotic situations and passenger frustration have been the result.

"This is a problem that we have across Europe,'' Transport Minister Volker Wissing said.

Workers at private companies had left during the airport shutdowns, caused by the Coronavirus pandemic, he noted.

Labour Minister Hubertus Heil, said that indications from the airline sector were that several thousand workers not currently needed at Turkish airports could fill the gap.

They would be employed directly by the companies themselves.

The state would act to expedite temporary entry, residential and employment permits, he said.

Heil made it clear that conditions would be imposed to rule out poor wages and social conditions.

He said contract work, where the companies concerned did not take direct responsibility for the staff, would not be allowed, official rates would be paid and decent accommodation would be provided.