TNT and Dutch postal unions will restart talks on Friday over a wage agreement amid preparationsfor a nationwide strike on May 27 and following a series of regional protests in recent weeks.
A TNT spokesman said the company would present various options aimed at ending the deadlock,but declined to provide further details, news agencies reported.
In response, the trade union Abvakabo FNV said it was open to new discussions but added thatthe invitation will only lead to an agreement if TNT management was prepared to come up with asubstantially better offer.
Workers are demanding a 3.5 % wage rise backdated to April 1 for a one-year period. But TNThas only offered a 1.5 % wage rise retroactive to April 1 and 1.5 % from January 1, 2009, oncondition of reduced workplace benefits.
TNT argued its workers were already paid 20 to 25 % more than market rates. It had initiallysought a pay freeze for two and half years to limit planned jobs to between 6,500 and 7,000, in abid to cut costs warning that if unions did not agree to the wage freeze it may need to sack 11,000workers in order to compete better with rivals in a liberalised market.
TNT is targeting cost savings of € 395 million between 2007 and 2015. The strikes are thefirst to have hit TNT since 1983.
