The Verdi services union and Deutsche Post have agreed on a new collective agreement for the company’s around 160,000 employees.
Photo: dpa/Sven Hoppe
There will probably not be an indefinite strike at Deutsche Post for the time being. The top management agreed on Saturday with the Verdi services union on a new collective agreement for the around 160,000 employees of the logistics company. “This is a good result that could not have been achieved without the pressure and the willingness to go on strike from our members,” said Verdi’s deputy chairwoman and chief negotiator, Andrea Kocsis. The union will now initiate a ballot at Deutsche Post on the collective bargaining result. The collective bargaining commission recommends that you accept the outcome of the negotiations.
The union only published the result of the vote on the first offer from the top management on Thursday. Accordingly, 85.9 percent voted against its acceptance and for an indefinite strike. On the same day, the Verdi management called for a fourth round of negotiations, which the union complied with. The group also announced a fourth record profit in a row. According to this, the DHL group, to which Deutsche Post belongs, made a bottom line increase of 8.4 billion euros last year.
The compromise that has now been reached provides for tax- and duty-free inflation compensation payments in April 2023 of 1020 euros and from May 2023 to March 2024 of 180 euros per month. From April 2024, employees will receive a fixed monthly salary increase of EUR 340. According to Verdi, this corresponds to an increase of 16.1 to eleven percent in the bottom three salary groups. 90 percent of all employees fall into these groups. So far they have earned between 2108 and 3090 euros per month. »With this tariff result, our most important goal of creating an inflation adjustment, especially for the lower income groups, has been achieved according to the current forecasts of the expected rate of price increases«, says Kocsis.
Verdi had entered the negotiations with the demand for a permanent pay increase of 15 percent for a contract period of twelve months. In the third round of negotiations in February, the top management presented an initial offer. This provided for inflation compensation payments of 150 euros a month this year and 100 euros a month next year, as well as two table-effective increases in fixed amounts next year totaling 340 euros. According to Verdi, this would have meant tariff increases of 9.9 percent on average over a period of 24 months. The union saw this offer as too small and therefore initiated the ballot on the indefinite strike. According to them, the collective bargaining compromise that has now been found should be 25 percent higher than the first offer from the group’s top management.