13. Personnel expenses

The direct remuneration paid to members of the Executive Board totalled € 3,182 thousand for the financial year 2020 (previous year: € 3,060 thousand). More details on the remuneration paid to the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board can be found in Note 48.

The rise in personnel expenses in the year under review is due to increases in union wage rates and a larger headcount.

Due to the decrease in capacity utilisation at the container terminals in Hamburg, which was mainly caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there was a decline in expenses for staff deployment.

Social security contributions and benefits rose on account of the addition to a provision for restructuring as part of an efficiency programme. Social security contributions include payments towards the public pension scheme amounting to € 30,509 thousand (previous year: € 29,759 thousand) and payments to the German pension insurance scheme.

Service expense includes payments from defined benefit pension commitments and similar obligations, see Note 36.

In addition, the Group used an annual average of 548 employees (previous year: 753) of Gesamthafenbetriebs-Gesellschaft m.b.H., Hamburg (GHB).