“Best deal in history”
Post wants to avert strike with letter
02/24/2023, 4:48 p.m
Whether there should be an indefinite strike at the post office or not is the subject of a Verdi ballot until March 8th. The management has meanwhile sent a letter to the employees and advertised their own offer. The employees should look at this “very closely”.
In the collective bargaining dispute at Deutsche Post, the company advertised the management’s offer in a letter to all employees. Nikola Hagleitner, the manager responsible for the German letter and parcel business, wrote that it was “the best offer in the company’s history” and meant “permanently significantly more money”, especially for the lower income groups. The letter is available to the AFP news agency.
Collective bargaining for around 160,000 employees at Deutsche Post failed in the third round. The Verdi union has called for the employers’ offer to be rejected and is currently having its members vote on it in a ballot. If 75 percent of those surveyed agree, Verdi wants to call for indefinite strikes. The ballot runs until March 8th.
Hagleitner wrote: “Please take a very close look at the offer and the associated increases in income for you.” Employees should not be unsettled by “slogans or false reports”.
Offer “far from” claims
The company is offering a tax-free inflation premium of 3,000 euros over two years retrospectively from January, as well as a wage increase of a total of 340 euros per month in two stages from 2024. According to the company, the starting salary for a parcel sorter, for example, would increase by 20.3 percent, and a newly hired delivery woman would receive 18 percent more per month.
According to a graphic in the manager’s letter, wages would increase by 150 euros a month in 2023, tax-free. In 2024 it would be EUR 250 more per month, of which EUR 100 is tax-free, plus a payment of EUR 190 in December. In 2025 there would be 340 euros more per month.
Verdi is demanding a 15 percent increase in salary and an increase in training allowances of 200 euros per month for each year of training over a period of one year. To increase the pressure, the union had organized several all-day warning strikes in recent weeks. Verdi dismissed the offer presented in the third round as “far removed” from the demands.