Workers reach pact with Deutsche Post
Deutsche Post, the biggest postal service in Europe, agreed with about 130,000 workers on a new wage accord whose components include cash payments and pay rises.
Under the two-year pact, the company will pay out EUR250, or $322, in cash during the first six months of the agreement, which runs from May 1, Deutsche Post said Saturday.
The agreement is equal to a 2.3 percent wage increase in the first year of the program and a 2 percent increase in the second year, Deutsche Post said.
Deutsche Post said it reached the accord after two rounds of talks with Ver.di, a trade union representing the interests of the company’s work force.
DPost press release 13/5
Wage negotiations between Deutsche Post AG and ver.di reach a successful conclusion
Term of agreement runs until April 30, 2008 / Scheurle hails “positive message for employees, customers and shareholders”
Wage negotiations for Deutsche Post AG’s 130,000 employees were successfully concluded on Saturday morning after just two rounds of talks between representatives of the company and the trade union ver.di. The agreement reached between the two parties will cover a period of 24 months starting from May 1, 2006.
Employees will receive a one-time payment of 250 euros for the first six months from May to October 2006. Wages and salaries will then rise by three percent for the period from November 2006 to October 2007. There will be a further increase of 2.5 percent in November 2007, which will run until the end of the agreement in April 2008. This corresponds to a 2.3 percent pay rise in the first year of the agreement and a two percent rise in the second year. Civil servants are to receive a one-time payment of 110 euros in May 2007.
Walter Scheurle, Labor Director and chief negotiator for Deutsche Post AG, was pleased that an agreement had been reached quickly: “We have achieved a satisfactory result for both sides, despite the difficult environment in which we find ourselves. In a period when protracted wage negotiations seem to be the norm, the fact that we reached agreement swiftly sends a positive message to our employees, customers and shareholders. And despite the fact that the negotiations were tough, their successful outcome is further proof of the bond of trust that has always existed between the Group and its social partners.”
