Deutsche Post outsourcing plan meets German Union opposition
Deutsche Post’s plan to outsource package-delivery services is meeting opposition from German services union ver.di.
Deutsche Post Chief Executive Klaus Zumwinkel said the mail, parcels, logistics and financial services company might outsource package services in Germany to cut wage costs.
“In the package area, we have a hole that we need to close,” Zumwinkel told Die Welt. “We need to understand that the wage structure at Deutsche Post has a disadvantage compared with the wage structure of our competitors.”
A Deutsche Post spokesman told Dow Jones that outsourcing was one of many options being considered to ease the wage burden in the domestic parcel business.
Ver.di board member Rolf Buettner called for a long-term contract for Deutsche Post workers and threatened work stoppages if the company wasn’t willing to negotiate such a deal.
Separately in the interview, Zumwinkel said planned cuts in Deutsche Post’s 320,000-strong workforce would be less than the 10,000 the company said were possible after it was ordered last year to cut stamp prices. The ruling – the first such reduction in 50 years – covers the period 2003-07, and will reduce Deutsche Post’s earnings by 300 million euros ($324 million) a year in the period, the company said at the time.
Deutsche Post’s cost-cutting program unveiled in October is expected to boost earnings before interest, taxes and amortization by about 40 percent to $2.87 billion in 2005.
