A German court has again ruled that the controversial minimum postal wage in Germany is invalid.The issue will now go to a higher third court after the government appealed against the verdict.
The Higher Administrative court of Berlin-Brandenburg ruled on Thursday that the postalminimum wage of € 9.80 was contrary to prevailing constitutional law and therefore not binding forprivate postal companies such as TNT Post. The German government said it would appeal against thecourt ruling.
The decision confirms the verdict of the Berlin Administrative Court on 7 March 2008 rulingthat the German State had failed to consider the economic impact on competitors when introducingthe €9.80 minimum wage. But the labour ministry had appealed against this ruling.
The court said the German labour ministry had exceeded its legal authority by imposing theminimum wage on the whole sector, and not just on employees not covered by the collective wageagreements.
The ruling is a heavy setback for Deutsche Post, according to the company’s spokesman, sayingit was incomprehensible. “A minimum wage is necessary in the postal sector in order to have faircompetition.”
Smaller competitors to Deutsche Post, including Dutch TNT and Germany’s PIN , opposed thegovernment’s decision to apply a minimum wage to the sector, arguing it put them at a competitivedisadvantage.
TNT welcomed the latest decision and said it would continue paying €7.50 per hour to itspostmen in Germany as agreed with its unions but added that it planned to review the business casefor its German mail operations in the first quarter of 2009.
However, the ruling was not a clear victory for Deutsche Post’s competitors either as thejudges said labour courts would now have to decide whether these companies would have to pay theminimum wage to their employees.
“As far as TNT is concerned, it’s still very uncertain…You can’t say the game is over yet.The state of Germany will not let this case rest, that is for sure,” TNT’s lawyer Boudewijn Wentinktold reporters.
Supporters of the minimum wage said public discontent about income inequality in Germany wasgrowing, arguing that domestic demand needed a boost and that Deutsche Post’s competitors shouldnot base their business models on workers earning a pittance.
But business lobbies counter that the minimum wage level favours Deutsche Post, which handlesover 90% of letter deliveries in Germany and thus has huge advantages of scale.
