As at December 31, 2004, the Linde Group (excluding Refrigeration) employed 41,383 people worldwide, 4,781 less than at the end of fiscal 2003. Of these, 14,667 were employees in Germany (2003: 14,568 excluding Refrigeration) and 26,716 outside Germany (2003: 25,340 excluding Refrigeration).
The substantial increase outside Germany was due mainly to new companies being included in the consolidation in Linde Gas and Material Handling. In 2004, Group personnel costs were €2.266 billion, virtually the same figure as in the previous year (2003: €2.273 billion).
In the Linde Gas division, the number of employees rose during the year by 418 to 17,570. In the Linde Engineering division, there was also an increase in the number of employees in 2004 of 77 to 4,217.
The Material Handling business segment employed 18,878 staff in 2004, 946 more than in the previous year, due to the good order situation, the expansion of the dealer network in Europe and an increase in the number of employees in China.
At the date of the sale of the Refrigeration business segment to Carrier Corp. on October 1, the number of employees in the segment was 6,242 (excluding Linde Ladenbau).
| Employees: Analysis by business segment | 2004 | 2003 | ||
| Gas and Engineering | 21,787 | 21,292 | ||
| Linde Gas | 17,570 | 17,152 | ||
| Linde Engineering | 4,217 | 4,140 | ||
| Material Handling | 18,878 | 17,932 | ||
| Refrigeration | 0 | 6,448 | ||
| Corporate* | 718 | 492 | ||
| Group | 41,383 | 46,164 |
| * | In 2004 including Linde Ladenbau and Datacenter. |
| Employees: Analysis by region | 2004 | 2003 | ||
| Germany | 14,667 | 17,211 | ||
| Rest of Europe | 17,799 | 20,000 | ||
| North America | 4,062 | 3,958 | ||
| South America | 2,044 | 2,308 | ||
| Asia | 2,287 | 2,182 | ||
| Australia/Africa | 524 | 505 | ||
| Total | 41,383 | 46,164 |
Linde Corporate Health Insurance Scheme
The number of members of Linde’s corporate health insurance scheme (BKK) increased once again during the year. At December 31, 2004, BKK covered 25,823 members (2003: 25,650) and 12,781 dependants (2003: 12,847). A uniform contribution rate of 13.6 percent applied in both the former West German states and the former East German states.
Thank you to our employees
The Executive Board would like to thank all Linde employees for their hard work and personal commitment in the past fiscal year. Their valuable contribution has ensured that the competitiveness of the Linde Group continues to increase.
We will provide detailed information about Linde as an employer and about our employee benefits in our Corporate Responsibility Report which will be published for the first time in fall 2005.