German cabinet set to approve minimum wage for postal sector
The German grand coalition Cabinet is set to approve a minimum wage for the postal deliveries sector when it meets Wednesday, a government spokesman said Monday.
Spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said he expects the necessary steps will be taken to approve it.
The Social Democrats’ SPD party and the conservative parties CDU and CSU recently clashed over the introduction of a minimum wage parallel to the completion of the liberalization of the letter deliveries market that is scheduled for Jan. 1, 2008.
The Social Democrats had publicly called on Chancellor Angela Merkel to accept the minimum wage as agreed in a previous agenda, despite resistance from the German Economics Minister Michael Glos.
A spokeswoman for Glos said Monday she was confident that a solution could be found Wednesday.
Former monopoly Deutsche Post AG and services union ver.di recently agreed on a minimum wage in a range of between EUR8 and EUR9.8 per hour.
The SPD remains committed to extend minimum wages to other sectors, Hubertus Heil, the SPD’s general secretary said.
