The German coalition government yesterday approved as expected a controversial measure to includethe mail sector into minimum wage legislation. But private competitors are planning to challenge
the move.The Social Democrat labour minister Franz Müntefering announced that the decision to includethe sector into existing legislation on minimum pay had been unanimous. He claimed that all “letter-carriers”, even if newspaper or parcel delivery workers who only occasionally deliveredletters, would be covered by the measure.
But the Conservative economics minister Michael Glos rejected this interpretation. He hadearlier ensured that the measure referred to “mail services” rather than the more broadly-defined “postal services”.
The coalition government now needs to draw up a full bill requiring approval by the twohouses of the German Parliament before the sector can be ordered to implement minimal pay rules.Supporters of the measure aim to implement it by January 2008 when the full domestic market isliberalised.
The decision followed several months of heavy lobbying by Deutsche Post and the Verdi tradeunion over claims of “wage-dumping” by private mail firms, and a minimum pay agreement betweenVerdi and the newly-formed postal employers association AGV, representing mostly Deutsche Post andassociated companies.
These developments were heavily criticised by the leading challengers, PIN Group and TNTPost, which formed their own rival employers association to try to negotiate a separate minimum paydeal.
Verdi welcomed the cabinet decision as “the first step against pay and social dumping” in thesector. Several organisations, including the German Employers Federation, claimed yesterdaythat the existing minimum pay agreement did not cover a majority of mail industry workers. But theAGV claimed it represented 173,000 of 195,000 employees working in the mail sector, including the149,000 Deutsche Post mail staff.
