Deutsche Post DHL today rejected a 5.5% pay rise demand by German services union Verdi that it claimed would amount to 12.5% in total if working hours were also reduced at unchanged pay levels.
During today’s fourth round of pay talks, the union, which has organised a series of warning strikes in recent weeks, tabled a demand for a 5.5% pay increase for 130,000 employees of Deutsche Post in Germany who are covered by a collective agreement.
The union has already demanded a reduction in weekly working hours for employees from 38.5 to 36 hours without any equivalent reduction in payment. This effectively amounts to a pay rise of about 7%, according to the company.
Deutsche Post DHL board member Melanie Kreis, who is responsible for labour relations, commented: “The demands from Verdi for full pay compensation with a reduction in weekly working times and for a rise in collective salaries don’t reflect reality. They would mean a pay rise of 12.5% in total, and thus an additional rise in staff labour costs of about €600 million. That simply cannot be financed and would also significantly impact on our existing massive labour cost disadvantages compared to our competitors.”
Deutsche Post said that it already proposed a more flexible working week, based on a standard 36-hour week, in the first round of talks. But it made the issue of full pay compensation dependent on the union’s official pay rise demand.
The ongoing labour dispute follows Deutsche Post’s plans to create up to 10,000 lower-paid but full-time parcel delivery jobs in Germany in new regional companies based on local collective pay agreements. To date, some 6,000 people are working for these delivery companies, including some 3,800 former part-time workers who have moved from Deutsche Post AG. The plan is designed to reduce the gap in labour costs between the company’s parcel business and competitors with lower pay levels.
But the move has been heavily criticised by Verdi which claims that by creating 49 regional companies for parcel delivery, the postal operator is violating the existing agreement with the union which excludes outsourcing of deliveries to internal or external companies.
