A move by TNT Post to avoid paying the new minimum postal wage in Germany has sparked offinternational union protests and threats of a boycott.
TNT Post Germany managing director Mario Frusch has said that the company will not pay thenew minimum wage level in force since January 1 and that it is taking legal action against the lawwhich obliges postal operators to pay sorting and delivery staff a minimum wage of EUR 8 – EUR9.80.
Instead, TNT Post plans to pay staff a minimum level of EUR 7.50 (EUR 6.50 in easternGermany) based on an “added-value services” collective agreement signed with an employeeassociation last autumn.
But the Swiss-based organisation Union Network International (UNI), representing unions inthe postal sector and other industries, has called on its members to protest against TNT for “undermining” the new postal law, and is threatening to call for a boycott by TNT customers.
“This dispute is of fundamental importance,” said UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings in aletter to TNT CEO Peter Bakker. “If the big postal groups don’t abide by the law afterliberalisation of the postal market in the EU then a precedent will be set that could be followedin other states.”
Rolf Büttner, head of the UNI Postal section and a former executive at German union Verdi,told German newspaper Die Welt that the union organisation was planning a day of action in front ofTNT offices. If necessary, it would protest to TNT customers and call for a boycott of the companyuntil it paid the minimal postal wage.
