A minimum wage deal for German postal sector workers was agreed yesterday by the newly-formedemployers association AGV and the Verdi union, and looks set to enter force by January 1, 2008,
when the domestic mail market is fully liberalised. But the deal was strongly criticised by leadingprivate rival PIN Group.Under the agreement, delivery staff in western Germany will get a minimum hourly wage of EUR9.80 while sorting staff will earn EUR 8.40 an hour. Lower rates of EUR 9 for delivery workers andEUR 8 for sorting staff will be paid in eastern Germany until 2010, and then raised to westernGerman levels.
The deal initially covers members of the AGV from October, but the German government isexpected to declare it to be legally binding on the entire mail sector from January 2008. The AGV,founded by Deutsche Post, various subsidiaries and a number of medium-sized postal companies,represents some 20 companies with some 200,000 staff, including 160,000 DP mail workers. But thetwo major private competitors TNT Post and PIN Group have not joined the AGV on the grounds that itis dominated by Deutsche Post.
The agreed rates are substantially below those of Deutsche Post but higher than thosecurrently paid by PIN Group, TNT Post and other private companies. Verdi previously said it wanteda minimum wage of EUR 10 per hour.
“This agreement is an important step on the way to fair and social working conditions foremployees in the postal services industry,” said Verdi board member Andrea Kocsis. The lowest rateensured that workers would not have to rely on top-up social security payments to cover basicliving costs, and would protect staff in future from “social (pay) dumping” in a liberalised postalmarket, she added.
Wolfhard Bender, AGV chairman, said the collective pay agreement ensured that competition inthe future would be fair and conducted on the basis of products and quality, and not through “pay-dumping”.
But Günter Thiel, CEO of the PIN Group, told German media that the rapid pay agreement was “an indescribable farce” and threatened legal action if the government declared the deal. PIN Groupand TNT Post have formed a separate interest group to try to seal their own pay agreement withVerdi.
The international express and courier services association BIEK, representing the majorexpress and parcel companies, said in a statement that the AGV did not represent the entireindustry, and claimed the agreement amounted to an abuse of free competition.
The separate BdKEP association, representing mostly courier firms and small postal operators,said it had not been party to the talks and planned its own negotiations with Verdi in the autumn.
