Germany Pin CEO: Minimum-wage deal could threaten postal peers

Small German postal service providers won’t be able to survive and tens of thousands of jobs in the sector will be lost if the planned minimum-wage agreement for the sector were to become generally binding, Guenter Thiel, chief executive of Pin Group.

Pin Group is a unit of Axel Springer AG. Private postal service providers are hoping to grab market share from the largest player, previously- government-owned Deutsche Post, when the German market for postal service will be liberalized next year.

Many large customers are already hesitant to do business with Pin and other Deutsche Post competitors amid uncertainty about the outcome of the minimum wage discussion, Thiel said.

Deutsche Post and labor union Ver.di recently agreed on a minimum wage of between EUR 8.00 and EUR 9.80 for postal workers. Private competitors like Pin Group are demanding a minimum wage of EUR7.50 maximum.