Germany will extend minimum wage legislation in the postal sector
Germany is planning to extend minimum wage legislation to cover the postal sector. The move follows claims of “pay-dumping” in the partly-liberalised mail market.
The Christian Democrat – Social Democrat coalition government agreed after long negotiations on Monday night that the postal sector should be covered by minimum wage regulations if employers and employee representatives wished so.
This means that pay agreements can be extended to cover an entire industry, including companies with no collective pay deals. At present, Deutsche Post and the Verdi union have a collective agreement, and Verdi has started talks with TNT Post and PIN Group.
The political agreement follows a long campaign by Verdi over alleged pay-dumping by private mail firms and claims by Deutsche Post that rivals were winning business on the basis of lower wages.
In response to the political decision, the MFIP lobby group, representing private German postal companies, said it supported fair minimum social standards in the sector but warned that regulations should not hold back competition. It pointed to a recent survey by the German postal regulator Bundesnetzagentur which found that private mail firms are not paying the “dumping wages” alleged by Deutsche Post, postal unions and some Social Democrat politicians.
“The same minimum social standards for all companies also assume fair competitive conditions for all market participants, for example on the issue of the currently different handling of VAT,” added MFIP spokesman Bernd Jäger. At present, Deutsche Post is exempt from charging 19% VAT on letters and small parcels while competitors are legally obliged to charge the tax.
