This calls for changing how work is organised, but obviously also brings risks, which the Koper-based newspaper hopes the port operator is ready for.

Luka is facing a major employment wave, and has received more than 5,000 job applications as it plans to employ 307 workers which currently work for it through subcontractors.

"The Koper Employment Service cannot remember when a single employer has employed so many workers."

Luka furthermore plans to create another 203 new jobs this year and employ 350 agency workers in the coming months, whereas some 500 will work for the port through subcontractors.

Currently 48% of its workers are Luka Koper's own employees and 52% are hired through subcontractors or agencies. The new model envisages 61% of own employees, 12% of agency workers and 27% of workers hired through subcontractors.

Primorske Novice hopes Luka has a solid plan of how to implement the new system without major shocks. "Yet even pundits say that not every detail can be planned in advance, as this is a kind of an experiment after all," it says in Luka's Experiment.

The paper also wonders whether the management has invested more energy into the hiring model than into its main line of business, noting the port's transshipment in the first half of the year remained at the level of the first six months last year, while investments dropped by 85%.