Tag: TNT

Berlin Administrative Court confirms: minimum wage not binding for TNT Post

Posted by | Mar 7, 2008 | |

In its decision in the case against the postal minimum wage, the Berlin Administrative Court today confirmed TNT Post’s interpretation of the law. The court ruled that the postal minimum wage of EUR 9.80 violates the German constitution. In November 2007, this wage was concluded between trade union ver.di and the Deutsche Post-dominated Employers’ association for postal services. In the opinion of the court the Minister of Labour and Social Affairs was not allowed to declare this wage generally binding.

The decision means that TNT Post is not obliged to pay the too high minimum wage under the ordinance passed by the government. However, the decision today is the important first step as the German State has, as expected already, filed an appeal against the decision of the court. The appeal process may take at least six months.
TNT Post will continue to pay the minimum wage to which it is bound under the collective labour agreement for value added services, as agreed by the Employers’ association for new postal and delivery services. At EUR 7.50, TNT Post is paying exactly the minimum wage demanded by ver.di, the Federation of German Trade Unions (DGB) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) for many years.

TNT has always been in favour of a minimum wage.

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Court opposes minimum wage in German postal sector

Posted by | Mar 7, 2008 | |

A German administrative court said on Friday a minimum wage introduced in the country’s postal service did not conform with the law, handing a victory to competitors of Deutsche Post

The court said the minimum wage violated the basic rights of the plaintiffs, who are competitors of Germany’s main postal delivery firm and former state monopoly Deutsche Post.

Dutch mail company TNT NV and Germany’s mail services group PIN had taken legal action over Germany’s minimum wage, arguing it should not have been declared universally binding.

Europe’s largest economy introduced a minimum wage of up to 9.80 euros per hour for the country’s roughly 220,000 postal workers in January.

The German Labour Ministry said it would appeal the ruling.

“The government and Bundestag (lower house of parliament) decided last year to accompany the full opening of the letter market with a minimum wage,” it said about the introduction of the pay floor, which coincided with the end of Deutsche Post’s remaining monopoly for letters up to 50 grams.

Supporters of the minimum wage say public discontent about income inequality in Germany is growing, arguing that domestic demand needs a boost and that Deutsche Post’s competitors should not base their business models on workers earning a pittance.

But business lobbies say the minimum wage level favours Deutsche Post, which handles over 90 percent of letter deliveries in Germany and thus has huge advantages of scale.

Germany does not have a nationwide minimum wage. It is opposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel on the grounds that it would create new problems and could put jobs at risk.

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TNT Post to strengthen retail network

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

TNT Post, part of TNT N.V., published a press release announcing the opening of 750 new sales outlets in shops in the Netherlands. TNT Post’s current services at 1850 shops will remain unchanged, providing consumers in the future 2600 points at which to transact postal business. The press release also states the joint intention of TNT Post and Postbank to transfer their services from the 250 main post offices to existing and new locations in their own networks by the end of 2012. This will involve discontinuing their partnership in Postkantoren BV (a 50/50 joint venture of TNT Post and Postbank), but continuing to work together at 550 of the in total 2600 locations in shops.

With the announced strengthening of the retail network TNT Post wants to further improve its service on the Dutch market. The increase of the number of sales outlets will enable customers to do their postal business closer to home. Having more shop-based sales outlets will improve customer satisfaction with regard to opening hours, waiting times and accessibility.

TNT Post estimates that in 2008 the restructuring costs involved in discontinuing the existing joint venture in Postkantoren BV is expected to be around EUR 70 million before taxes. Furthermore it is expected that, as the result of one-off items and the savings achieved, the expansion and modification of TNT Post’s retail network from 2009 through to 2012 can be achieved with a slightly cash positive balance. From 2013, full implementation of these plans is expected to contribute a structural annual operational cost saving of EUR 45 million compared to the level of 2007. From these cost savings an amount of EUR 25 million comes on top of the earlier communicated savings target for master plans of EUR 370 million in the period 2007 – 2015. As a result the target is increased to EUR 395 million euro.

TNT Post and Postbank will make available the financial resources necessary for Postkantoren BV to offer a social plan aimed at guiding all employees into new jobs and avoiding forced redundancies as much as possible.
A request for advice on these plans will shortly be submitted to the Works Council.

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TNT ups costs savings target to 395 mln euros

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

Dutch mail company TNT NV increased its costs savings target to 395 million euros (USD 600.9 million) due to changes in its retail network, the firm said on Wednesday.

TNT, which had originally aimed for savings of 370 million euros between 2007-2015, said it will save an extra 25 million euros from ending its joint venture with Postbank.

It estimated restructuring costs related to this move at about 70 million euros before taxes.

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Postbank and TNT Post focus on own sales outlets

Posted by | Mar 5, 2008 | |

TNT Post and Postbank will be concentrating on their own sales outlets for handling postal and banking business. Both companies announced their intention to transfer their combined services presently offered at the head post offices to their own TNT Post and Postbank locations over the next five years. The current arrangement of head post offices will disappear. The sales outlets in shops where TNT Post and Postbank now jointly offer their services will remain unchanged. With this plan, TNT Post and Postbank are responding to the market trend and catering to the changing demands of the Dutch consumer. The aim of the move for TNT Post and Postbank is to improve the services offered to their own customers.
The new initiatives implemented in recent years by TNT Post and Postbank aimed at catering to changing consumer requirements by locating the services where the consumer now expects to find these have proven very successful, resulting in the growth in the number of customers, customer satisfaction and sales. Over the last few years, the number of head post offices has been cut back from over 2,000 to 250.
Over the next five years, the focus on own sales outlets will result in the disappearance of the activities of the head office of Postkantoren BV in Utrecht and in the 250 remaining head post offices, accompanied by the loss of 1,850 jobs. The two shareholders, TNT Post and Postbank, will make available the financial resources necessary for Postkantoren BV to offer a social plan aimed at guiding all employees into new jobs and avoiding compulsory redundancy as much as possible. A request for a formal opinion on these plans will shortly be submitted to the works councils concerned.

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