DUTCH PORT EMPLOYERS RESUME LAY-OFF PLANS
Employers in Rotterdam's troubled
general cargo sector have decided to restart stalled redundancy
procedures within a week, employers' organisation labour
relations manager Gerard Zeebregts told Reuters.
    Port and transport union spokesman Bert Duim said the
employers' decision would not lead to the immediate resumption
of eight weeks of strikes in the sector.
    The strike action was called off on Friday after an interim
court injunction against the employers' plans for 350
redundancies this year.
    A court in Amsterdam ruled last week the employers had made
an error in the complicated procedure for obtaining permission
for the redundancies and therefore could not proceed until a
final ruling on May 7.
    Zeebregts said the initiation of new procedure might well
take up to two months, but the employers were not prepared
simply to sit and wait for the May 7 court ruling with the
chance they would have to start all over again in any case.
    "We cannot afford not to continue with our plans. The
strikes have already cost a lot of money and damaged business,
and further delays would do even more damage," Zeebregts said.
    The campaign of lightning strikes in the port's general
cargo sector began on January 19 in protest at employers' plans
for 800 redundancies from the sector's 4,000 strong workforce
by 1990, starting with 350 this year.
 Reuter
