TNT Post offers to save 1,400 jobs

Dutch unions and the works council have rejected TNT Post’s latest offer to reduce compulsory redundancies from 4,500 to 3,500, according to reports. Post&Parcel reported on Monday that TNT would reduce the number of lay-offs, although the company did not reveal how many of the 4,500 staff would be saved.

Earlier today,  it was reported that Dutch unions and the Works Council rejected TNT Post’s original offer to reduce compulsory redundancies from 4,500 to 3,500. Speaking to Dutch newspaper Financieele Dagblad, works council chairman Bernard de Vries said: “The total of 3,500 is still too many.”

Despite agreeing to lower the number of compulsory redundancies, TNT Post said the inevitable lay-offs were “unavoidable”.

Now the company has said it will save an extra 400 jobs, as well as offering 200 people work temporarily, until the end of 2012.

A company spokesman said: “TNT Post believes that the most important preconditions for this reduction will be maximum effort, use of the mobility programme, and conclusion before the end of the year of the procedure for securing the formal opinion of the Works Council.

“Awaiting the unions’ response, TNT Post considers that this move represents a substantial step, in combination with the social plan already agreed on with the unions. The social plan comprises a range of ways of helping surplus employees find work outside TNT Post. It also provides for targeted training programmes and makes it possible for employees born before 1952 to keep their job.”

TNT said the current plans had been discussed with the Works Council and a subdivision has been made according to the various different company entities.

TNT said that compulsory redundancies were necessary as the company battles with the difficult economic climate, e-substitution and increased competition.

The company’s ‘Master Plan’ savings already announced totalling €430m for the period 2010-2017 remain unchanged.

“Reducing the number of involuntary redundancies does not make the main thrust of the impending reorganisation any less necessary, however. The declining postal market and increasing price pressure due to competition make it unavoidable for TNT Post to speed up the changes,” said TNT in an official statement.