Protests as TNT breaks German pay law
UNI is urging affiliates to join the protests against Dutch-based post and logistics giant TNT for undermining laws in Germany to protect postal workers as the sector is de-regulated.
UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings has accused TNT of “dubious actions in Germany” in a protest to the Amsterdam-based group’s Chief Executive Peter Bakker.
Under pressure from UNI affiliate ver.di and SPD coalition partners, the German government has introduced a legally binding minimum wage for the postal sector to ensure that rival operators do not drive conditions down in a race to the bottom to win postal business.
TNT-Post Germany – a subsidiary of TNT Group – is refusing to comply with the postal minimum wage (set at up to 9.80 euro an hour) and collective agreements negotiated by ver.di, which is the established postal union in Germany
Instead of dealing with ver.di, TNT has recognised a new union with dubious credentials to cover its operation in Germany and to negotiate agreements below collective and legal minimum standards.
The move puts at risk social provisions that governments introduce and unions negotiate to protect nearly two million postal workers in Europe as de-regulation is pushed across the European Union by 2011 for most countries and by 2013 for the remaining countries.
UNI is urging Mr Bakker to comply with Germany’s minimum wage and wants affiliates to send similar calls to the TNT CEO.
The new TNT-Post Germany union has failed to win approval of a German court to be registered. The leaders of the new union come directly from the executive offices of a postal provider and its financing is clouded in mystery.
The German labour minister has expressed serious doubts about the conduct.
But TNT continues to challenge the minimum wage, reported Rolf Büttner of ver.di – who is also UNI Post & Logistics World and European president – to a meeting of Post and Logistics unions at the end of last week.
It’s a move that could go right through the German courts and end up in the European Court of Justice to test the increasingly conflicting demands of market de-regulation and social protection.
