More warning strikes are looming at Deutsche Post DHL this week after public services union Verdi rejected the company’s latest pay offer in the escalating labour dispute.
The offer was made in a fourth round of talks on Saturday (May 9) centred on pay and the union’s demands for a shorter working week. Verdi claims that Deutsche Post is in breach of contract by creating 49 new regional parcel delivery companies with lower-paid full-time staff, and wants to compensate for this by securing a combined pay-and-working-hours deal for some 130,000 mail and parcel staff covered by the nationwide collective agreement.
On Friday (May 8) DP DHL rejected a 5.5% pay rise demand by Verdi that it claimed would amount to 12.5% in total if working hours were also reduced at unchanged pay levels. The union wants a reduction in weekly working hours 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.
On Saturday, the German postal and logistics group then offered to extend the current ‘protection against dismissal’ pact for a further three years until 2018, said that ‘leave of absence’ would be reinstated for December 24 and 31, and offered longer paid breaks during working hours. The full package on offer translated on average to a one-hour reduction in weekly working hours with no reduction in salary, according to the company.
"With these measures, Deutsche Post is offering its pay-scale employees long-term job security. At the same time, employees will gain an appreciable reduction in working hours without any financial disadvantage in terms of salary. In making this offer, we are going to the very limit of what is possible given the competitive disadvantage we are currently facing in terms of labor costs. In the interests of our employees, we are now calling upon the social partner to consider this offer in a constructive manner," said Melanie Kreis, Board Member for Human Resources and Labor Director at Deutsche Post DHL Group.
But Verdi today rejected this offer, saying the company was not ready to extend the agreement banning outsourcing of mail, parcel and combined mail/parcel deliveries beyond December 31, 2015. The union said it would now step up the pressure with more work stoppages which could start on Tuesday.
“The pay offer is a sham package and does not answer our demand for a reduction in weekly working time from 38.5 hours to 36 without any pay reduction, in order to compensate for the breach of contract over protection from outsourcing,” said Verdi’s deputy chairwoman Andrea Kocsis. “Deutsche Post must finally make an offer fit for negotiation,” she demanded.
The next round of negotiations is scheduled for May 20/21.
