Hapag-Lloyd is preparing to allocate roughly $300 million to finance severance packages for about 500 employees who will retire as part of its planned acquisition of ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, a sweeping workforce restructuring that has now unlocked a breakthrough in labour negotiations and brought a crippling strike to an end.
Staff at ZIM returned to work on Tuesday after intensive talks between union representatives, company management and the German carrier produced an agreement in principle, removing one of the last major barriers to the takeover.
The emerging plan reshapes ZIM’s workforce of around 1,000 people, with about 120 employees expected to transfer to a new ZIM entity to be retained by the FIMI investment fund, while roughly 400 will move into a new Israeli headquarters that Hapag-Lloyd intends to establish.
At the heart of the settlement is the substantial severance pool, earmarked for employees who will formally retire from ZIM as part of the transaction. Those retiring are also set to receive a sale-related bonus, with the final amount still under discussion, underscoring the scale of the social package designed to smooth the merger. Around 400 employees have already resumed office work, with the remainder continuing remotely, and all staff will be paid in full for the strike period alongside salary grade increases that had been due in January.
Union chairman Oren Caspi and ZIM chief executive Eli Glickman have also agreed to extend the collective bargaining agreement for five years, a stabilising measure intended to reassure workers through the transition.
A key union demand — that employees transferring to Hapag-Lloyd formally retire from ZIM before being rehired under new terms — has been accepted, clearing a procedural hurdle that had stalled talks.
Glickman is expected to finalise the understandings with Hapag-Lloyd’s chief executive in the coming days, paving the way for the acquisition to proceed and marking a decisive step in one of the container shipping industry’s most consequential consolidation moves in recent years.