PostNL and Dutch postal unions FNV Publiek Belang, Bond van Post Personeel, CNV Publieke Zaak and VHP2 have reached an agreement on a new social plan as the company is re-organising its business due to declining mail volumes.
Herna Verhagen, PostNL CEO, said: “Over the next few years, we will continue to adapt our company to declining post volumes, so re-organisations will unfortunately be unavoidable. We will do our utmost to help our employees move from one job to another, either within PostNL or elsewhere. Together with the trade unions, we have chosen for a custom-tailored approach, in which employees can make choices that better suit their own individual situations. The agreements made will offer our employees and our company a perspective on the future.”
The social plan applies to all employees that fall under the PostNL Collective Labour Agreement (CLA). It records the agreements that apply to the re-organisations at PostNL.
In response to a query from CEP-Research on how many employees will be affected, Karen Berg, Director Treasury & Investor Relations at PostNL, replied, without disclosing the exact number of employees: “the Social Plan will – when finalised – apply to all employees that fall under the PostNL CLA, being almost all staff in Parcels, Production, Commerce and the head office. Mail deliverers and Saturday deliverers have their own employment benefits.”
The most important agreements in the new agreement include ‘coaching by Mobility’, a phased model that helps employees leaving the company and a ‘pension menu’ offering older employees (aged 60+) extra options for early retirement.
The coaching by Mobility, PostNL’s employment mobility programme, can be used by PostNL employees to increase their chances of finding another job. Employees who become redundant can choose a more intensive coaching in transferring from one job to another, the company explained.
The phased model that PostNL and the trade unions have agreed on offers employees losing their jobs a range of choices. Those employees who decide to resign quickly will receive a higher compensation amount, which can equal up to five months’ extra income compared to the employees who resign later. Employees who are made redundant, will receive at least the legally required transition compensation.
The pension menu applies to the persons aged 60 and older, with the management yet to determine the additional options for early retirement and when these options will be made available to a particular group of employees, and for how long.
The agreement is subject to approval by the unions’ members, with the outcome expected to be known at the end of November. If the members approve the agreement, the new social plan will be made definitive and go into effect on 1 January 2016.
