Some 3,500 staff at DHL’s European air hub at Leipzig in Germany will have their weekly working hours reduced from 40 to 38.5 without any equivalent pay cut in an alternative to a pay increase.
German postal services union Verdi announced an agreement with DHL Hub Leipzig GmbH to reduce the weekly working time of around 3,500 staff employed at the hub in Leipzig from currently 40 to 38.5 hours which is the standard working week at Deutsche Post AG.
As part of the new collective labour agreement, the working time reduction will be implemented in two stages by January 1, 2018, at unchanged pay levels.
Andrea Kocsis, Verdi deputy chairwoman and head of its postal and logistics section, explained: "For the part-time workers, the working time reduction means more money in the wallet, for full-time employees, the workload is significantly reduced. This is a right signal at the present time.”
In the initial stage, the working week will be reduced to 39 hours from October 1, 2016, and then to 38.5 hours from January 1, 2018. For part-time workers, this corresponds to a wage increase of 3.9%. The full-time employees will receive three single payments of €1,500 in total over the next two years throughout the duration of the labour agreement until December 31, 2018. The part-time workers receive the sum on a pro-rata basis.
In addition, the existing performance-based variable remuneration for the four lower salary groups will be converted into a fixed annual special payment for all the employees concerned, which will be paid for the first time in November 2016. For the two upper salary groups, the existing system of performance-based variable remuneration remains.
The Verdi tariff commission approved the achieved results last Friday after six negotiation rounds.
Staff of DHL Hub Leipzig GmbH are responsible for moving international shipments at the DHL Leipzig hub.
