Agreement in principle on new collective labour agreement for TNT

TNT and the trade unions ABVAKABO FNV, CNV Publieke Zaak, BVPP and VPP reached an agreement in principle on a new one-year collective labour agreement in constructive negotiations. The agreement will come into force with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008 and will apply to all TNT employees in the Netherlands.
The unions will present the agreement to their members with advice to accept. This puts an end to the planned industrial action.
The key arrangements are as follows:
• All employees will receive a salary rise in the form of a structural increase of 3 pct with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008, plus 0.5 pct in the form of a monthly payment until 1 April 2009;
• The monthly payment of 0.5 pct will become a structural increase with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008 if a consensus is reached by no later than 1 April 2009 on the following:
o an Operations collective labour agreement for employees in scales 1 to 4 at TNT Post’s Operations business unit
o market-level terms and conditions of employment for Operations, Marketing & Sales and the policy and support units for employees who do not fall under the planned collective labour agreement for Operations
o market-level terms and conditions of employment for the employees of TNT Post Parcel Service, including the Transport unit
o a separate collective labour agreement for Express, TNT Head Office, Spring, Cendris and European Mail Networks (EMN)
o the monthly payment will lapse if no agreement is reached by 31 March 2009
• The agreement running until 1 April 2009 will not include any form of retrenchment in the terms and conditions of employment.

TNT and the trade unions ABVAKABO FNV, CNV Publieke Zaak, BVPP and VPP reached an agreement in principle on a new one-year collective labour agreement in constructive negotiations. The agreement will come into force with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008 and will apply to all TNT employees in the Netherlands.
The unions will present the agreement to their members with advice to accept. This puts an end to the planned industrial action.
The key arrangements are as follows:
• All employees will receive a salary rise in the form of a structural increase of 3 pct with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008, plus 0.5 pct in the form of a monthly payment until 1 April 2009;
• The monthly payment of 0.5 pct will become a structural increase with retroactive effect to 1 April 2008 if a consensus is reached by no later than 1 April 2009 on the following:
o an Operations collective labour agreement for employees in scales 1 to 4 at TNT Post’s Operations business unit
o market-level terms and conditions of employment for Operations, Marketing & Sales and the policy and support units for employees who do not fall under the planned collective labour agreement for Operations
o market-level terms and conditions of employment for the employees of TNT Post Parcel Service, including the Transport unit
o a separate collective labour agreement for Express, TNT Head Office, Spring, Cendris and European Mail Networks (EMN)
o the monthly payment will lapse if no agreement is reached by 31 March 2009
• The agreement running until 1 April 2009 will not include any form of retrenchment in the terms and conditions of employment.
The Operations collective labour agreement will be established in open and realistic negotiations. Therefore the -25 is not leading any more. This agreement will apply to existing and new employees, with the proviso that agreement is reached by no later than 31 March 2009 on the conditions under which this will occur. The level of this agreement will be substantially lower than that of the current collective labour agreement for TNT.
An appropriate package of measures will be arranged for existing employees to compensate the difference in terms and conditions of employment, taking into account the differences between employees in terms of their opportunities in the labour market.