Dutch postal unions yesterday put forward alternative proposals to TNT Post including a 1.5% riseafter staff rejected the company’s proposals to cut pay by 2-3.5% in return for job security. But
TNT urged the unions to think again.Following the recent rejection by employees of TNT’s proposal to cut wages but offer jobsecurity for the next three years, the unions have formally proposed a new pay deal based oncurrent working conditions and including a 1.5% pay rise back-dated to April 1, 2009. This was thealternative option supported by a majority of TNT Post workers in a recent vote.
The union ABVAKABO FNV said it wanted talks with TNT within one week as it did not accept afurther delay. ABVAKABO FNV said the unions were unpleasantly surprised about the current situationand TNT’s disagreement and incomprehension towards their proposal as they considered it to beconsistent with the labour agreement.
Another union, CNV Publieke Zaak, stressed the negotiations with TNT were based on theoutcome of an employee referendum. “In this referendum, the majority of our members chose optiontwo including a wage increase of 1.5% on April 1, 2009, for a period of one year.” Similarly, CNVsaid TNT reacted with misunderstanding to its proposal and was not willing to negotiate.
In response, TNT urged the postal unions to reconsider their proposals saying that it wassurprised and disappointed at the trade unions’ stance on the company’s collective labour agreementand social plan. “The proposals put forward by the unions will force drastic and rapidreorganisations resulting in a few thousand compulsory redundancies,” it said.
TNT said its management board wanted to discuss the submitted proposals and theirconsequences with the unions’ chairpersons. Following this discussion, TNT will enter intonegotiations with the unions whatever their proposal. The company added that it sees no commonground between the unions’ stance and the seriousness of the issues faced by TNT Post. “Since 2007,the necessary cost savings have been extensively discussed with the unions,” the company said.
At the beginning of November, TNT said it would put priority on retaining jobs and is seekingpay reductions of between 2% and 3.5% after warnings that it may need to reduce the 23,000-strongpostal workforce by up to 11,000 to cut costs in response to falling mail volumes and increasedcompetition. The company’s original aim of reducing salaries by up to 15% along with a three-yearjob guarantee was rejected in the spring.
TNT said it has repeatedly stressed in recent years that it favours acceptable changes to thelevel of terms and conditions of employment in order to protect as many jobs as possible and to beable to take on the competition.
TNT Post is facing serious challenges in the liberalised postal market with intensifyingprice competition. According to legal provisions, TNT Post is unable to lower its rates below costprice, which is largely determined by labour costs. The difference in wage costs, ranging from €23per hour at TNT Post to €8 per hour at its competitors, means that TNT Post cannot simply makedrastic cuts to its prices.
As a result, almost all Dutch radio and television guides, totalling over 100 million mailitems, will be distributed by competitors of TNT Post from 1 January 2010. Recently, lower pricesalso led the government to contract the delivery of 70 million mail items to the competition.Moreover, postal volumes are witnessing a strong decline as customers increasingly switch todigital solutions, TNT further explained.
