The price of Deutsche Post shares is too low, the head of the semi-privatised postal authority, Klaus Zumwinkel, complained on Thursday. “A look at the development of the ‘yellow share’ (the nickname of Deutsche Post shares) since our last shareholder meeting shows that our owners cannot be satisfied with the share price,” Zumwinkel told shareholders at the group’s annual meeting here.
Read MoreThe giant services sector union Ver.di extended warning strikes at the semi-privatised German postal authority, Deutsche Post, on Wednesday, with employees at letter-sorting centres in Berlin, Saxony and Baden-Wuerttemberg staging walkouts in pursuit of their current wage claims.
Some 2,000 employees took part in the action, which left around 17 million letters and parcels unhandled and would lead to delays in delivery in the three regions, Ver.di said.
The union threatened to extend the rolling strike action to other areas during the course of the day.
In the current wage dispute, Ver.di is calling for wage increases of 6.5 percent for around 160,000 of Deutsche Post’s 240,000-strong workforce.
Deutsche Post, the German postal service operator, is restructuring its e-business division, but stresses that it does not plan to withdraw from internet activities. The company plans to dispose of any e-business activities not expected to break even within two years, a buyer is sought for the shopping portal Evita, while subsidiaries E-Post and Deutsche Post Com are to be integrated into the group’s letter division. Negotiations with potential bidders for Evita are reported to be showing sluggish progress, however.
Read MoreDeutsche Post AG said it will offer its workers a pay rise at the next scheduled round of wage negotiations on June 10 and 11 but warned the ver.di union’s demand for a 6.5 pct pay rise is “unrealistic”.
The company did not say how much it is offering.
Ver.di said today that postal workers will hold warning strikes from tomorrow after two failed rounds of pay talks.
The strikes will disrupt some postal services, the union said.
Letter deliveries in Germany could be hit by a series of “warning strikes,” from Tuesday in a dispute over pay, a spokesman for the Ver.di union, Rolf Buettner said.
Buettner, who sits on the Deutsche Post board as a union representative, said the strikes are likely to result in reduced postal services.
Ver.di is claiming 6.5 percent pay rises for its members, and has criticised the partly privatised company for not responding to the claims.
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