Up to 1,600 job cuts expected at German Deutsche Post

Deutsche Post, the German postal service, is planning up to 1,600 job cuts in Germany by the end of 2006. This is said to be due to the planned merger of three of the company’s subsidiaries, Danzas, Euroexpress and DHL, to form an integrated subsidiary that will be responsible for parcel and express services. The job cuts form part of the company’s ‘Star’ programme, which was launched at the end of 2002 and which is intended to save the company a total of 1.4bn euros by 2005.

Deutsche Post says that it is in negotiations with trade unions in the hope that redundancies can be avoided. The company has already signed a pre-contract with Ver.di, the trade union for the service sector in Germany, regarding plans to find alternative employment within the group for as many of the affected staff as possible. Job cuts will not be limited to Germany, however, as the company is also planning to merge its acquisitions in the field of logistics and parcel services abroad.