In the collective bargaining at Deutsche Post, the company says it is “financially going to the limits of what is feasible” – that’s not enough for the union and employees. The negotiations have failed. Now a vote is to be taken on further strikes.
Collective bargaining for around 160,000 Deutsche Post employees has failed. The Verdi union now wants to initiate a ballot on a labor dispute. The Bonn group is threatened with further massive strikes. Verdi negotiator Andrea Kocsis said: “The offer presented by the employers is far from our demands.”
Verdi is demanding 15 percent more wages and salaries for postal employees and an increase in training allowances of 200 euros per month for each year of training over a period of one year. The union justifies this with the high inflation, among other things. At Deutsche Post AG, almost 90 percent of the pay scale employees are in pay groups 1 to 3. Your basic monthly salary is between 2108 and 3090 euros gross. These employees simply could not afford a loss of purchasing power, said Kocsis.
Deutsche Post, in turn, said the union had turned down a “record offer.” According to its own statements, the Post had offered an increase in all wages and training allowances by a total of 340 euros per month in two stages from the beginning of 2024. This corresponded to an increase in the monthly basic wages of the employees by an average of 11.5 percent – up to 20.3 percent at the top – in two steps from 2024. In addition, it provided for an inflation compensation premium totaling EUR 3,000 over two years.
According to Post, the starting salary for a parcel sorter would have increased by 20.3 percent. A newly hired mail carrier would have received around 18 percent more per month. With this offer, Swiss Post “reached the limits of what is financially feasible,” the company explained. It is “incomprehensible” that the union is jeopardizing the future of the letter and parcel business and thus many jobs.
“Verdi has lost a historic opportunity to secure the future of Deutsche Post in Germany,” said Post Human Resources Director Thomas Ogilvie. Kocsis said: “The employers were not willing to compensate for the real wage losses of the employees.” The employers’ proposal even increases the risk of further real wage losses. Verdi particularly criticized the long term of 24 months and the small increase in pay in 2024.
In the past few weeks, the union had repeatedly called on workers to go on warning strikes. According to Verdi, around 23,000 postal workers took part in walkouts on Monday and Tuesday this week alone. A total of almost 100,000 employees temporarily stopped working to emphasize Verdi’s demands. According to Swiss Post, millions of letters and parcels were delayed when they reached their recipients.
