Employees

Decline in employee numbers

Against the background of the economic downturn, the number of employees has declined significantly. On June 30, 2009, ThyssenKrupp had 188,501 employees worldwide, 10,873 or 5.5% fewer than at the end of the last fiscal year (September 30, 2008). With the exception of Elevator, where the number of employees remained virtually constant, all segments were affected by job cuts, in some cases significantly. Compared with the prior-year quarter ended June 30, 2008 the headcount was also down, by 9,532 employees or 4.8%.

The number of employees decreased in all regions. Compared with September 30, 2008 the headcount fell by 4.6% in Germany to 81,167 employees, and by 6.1% in the rest of the world to 107,334. At the end of June 2009, 43% of our employees were based in Germany, 23% in the rest of Europe, 15% in the NAFTA region, 9% in Asia – in particular China and India – 8% in South America and 2% in the rest of the world.

Short-time working – a key instrument of personnel policy in the crisis

In view of the severity of the slump in orders that impacted numerous businesses of the Group at the beginning of the new fiscal year, our instruments of personnel policy had to be quickly readjusted. In the first few weeks, working time account balances and residual leave entitlements helped cushion underutilization in the plants. In the companies concerned, the use of temporary employees was also restricted.

It is part of ThyssenKrupp's corporate culture to carry out all adjustments necessary in times of crisis with a strong sense of responsibility towards our employees. Structurally necessary personnel cutbacks are implemented in a socially compatible way. Cyclical employment problems are solved with the help of all flexible working measures available to prevent redundancies wherever possible. For this reason, many of the Group's subsidiaries have introduced short-time working for their employees in recent months.

In the current fiscal year approx. 29,000 employees in Germany and a further 17,000 abroad have already worked short hours. The main segment affected is Steel, where almost 20,000 employees have had their working time reduced. That is roughly half of the segment's global workforce. In the Stainless segment, some 5,200 employees – or over 40% of the workforce – are working short hours. At Technologies around 15,700 employees (approx. 30% of the workforce) had their hours reduced. In the Elevator segment only 693 employees were affected by short-time working, which is less than 2% of the workforce. In the Services segment around 4,800 employees (approx. 10% of the workforce) have worked short hours in the current fiscal year.

Wherever appropriate and possible, ThyssenKrupp endeavors to use periods of short-time working to upgrade the skills of the employees affected. Despite considerable administrative hurdles, our subsidiaries have found various solutions for this. While ThyssenKrupp Steel organized thousands of training shifts with in-house trainers in April and May 2009 alone, smaller subsidiaries – for example in the Services segment – are making increased use of external service providers.