Employees at the tunnel contractor Femern Link Contractors are temporarily sent home from work on the Fehmarn Belt connection.
This is stated in a letter to the employees, where the company announces a temporary layoff from 9 March. It is expected to last until 8 June. During this period, employees will not receive a salary from the contractor. The number of employees affected is not mentioned in the letter, but there are more than 1,400 hourly-paid construction workers at Femern Link Contractors.
Excerpt from the letter to the employees.
The layoffs are taking place at the tunnel factory in Rødbyhavn, where the large concrete elements for the Fehmarn tunnel are being produced.
The development comes at the same time as staffing at the Fehmarn construction site has already fallen significantly. The direct workforce on the construction site has decreased from 2,007 people in March 2025 to 1,621 in January 2026. This is 386 fewer employees and a decrease of just over 19%.
The immersed tunnel between Denmark and Germany will consist of 89 elements, each approximately 217 metres long and weighing more than 70,000 tonnes. The elements are cast at the factory in Rødbyhavn but can only be lowered into the Fehmarn Belt when both the trench on the seabed is ready and the immersion vessel Ivy is approved for the work.
May receive unemployment benefits
Until then, the finished elements can only be temporarily stored in harbour basins and on land at the factory. Storage capacity is limited, and when the number of finished elements approaches the limit, production cannot continue at the same pace. This has previously led to temporary production standstills.
Sund & Bælt confirms that FLC has sent employees home and that it is the main contractor who adjusts the staffing at the factory. However, they do not specify numbers.
Sund & Bælt also emphasises that the sending home is according to the rules.
- As the client, we emphasise that sending home is a contractual option agreed between the labour market parties, and that those sent home have the opportunity to receive unemployment benefits or seek other employment.
More problems press the schedule
The Femern project is currently facing several challenges. The custom-built vessel Ivy, which is to place the tunnel elements on the seabed, still lacks final authority approval. At the same time, there has been disagreement between the client and the main contractor Femern Link Contractors about the quality of the tunnel trench where the elements are to be placed.
Sund & Bælt has previously stated that it is no longer realistic to open the Femern connection in 2029. According to the project's own schedules, it will take about three years to lower the 89 tunnel elements and then an additional two years for installations and testing before the tunnel can be opened for traffic.
Thus, the entire schedule in practice depends on when the work to lower the first elements in the Fehmarn Belt can begin.
