Deutsche Post announced today it has sealed a two-year cost-cutting and outsourcing deal with theGerman services union Verdi in return for extended job security and will thus avoid damaging
strikes in the run-up to Christmas.The agreement, covering 130,000 employees in the Mail division, will reduce operating costsby €140 million in 2010 and €230 million in 2011, which will directly improve the mail profits,Deutsche Post said in a statement. It replaces a collective agreement which expires in June 2010.
“We have secured a victory for the stabilisation of mail profitability and for secure jobs,”said CEO Frank Appel. “We are convinced that we have achieved a significant contribution tosecuring the results of the mail division for the next two years.”
Under the agreement, the already fixed 3% pay increase on December 1 will go ahead and therewill be no changes to working times but there will then be pay freezes in 2010 and 2011. Inexchange, the commitment to no compulsory redundancies will be extended by six months untilDecember 31, 2011.
Deutsche Post had originally sought to delay the December pay rise, extend weekly workinghours from 38.5 to 40 and pay new employees lower basic wages than current staff.
In the parcels business, the two sides agreed that more sub-contractors could be used infuture, with the number of districts open to sub-contracting increasing by 166 to 990. DeutschePost will also be entitled to increase the number of sub-contractor drivers for transportationbetween the mail centres by 550 to 4,700.
Verdi’s deputy chairwoman Andreas Kocsis welcomed the agreement as giving employees a clearperspective and job security for the next two years. The union had ensured that letter deliverieswould not be sub-contracted and had secured an extension of the collective agreement until the endof 2011, she stressed.
Deutsche Post and Verdi also agreed on further talks to solve the mail division’s structuralproblems should the financial situation worsen.
