Wednesday January 12, 2022
Salary claims at the Postbank
Verdi announces wave of warning strikes
Six percent more wages and a corona bonus: Verdi wants to enforce these demands for a total of 15,000 Postbank employees. The union is disappointed with the negotiations so far. Now she is calling for several strikes that will start this week.
With warning strikes in the next few days, Verdi wants to increase the pressure in the collective bargaining negotiations for the Postbank, which only started at the beginning of the week. For this Thursday and Friday (January 13/14), the union at the Munich site is calling on employees of the infrastructure units of the institute belonging to the Deutsche Bank Group to take part in all-day work stoppages.
Until the second round of negotiations, which is planned for February 22nd, Verdi wants to gradually extend the warning strikes. This Friday and Saturday (January 14/15) the labor dispute is expected to hit 35 to 45 Postbank branches. Verdi did not initially announce which locations will be affected. Verdi negotiator Jan Duschck said in a video link that after the first round last Monday, the impression remained: “Without pressure, nothing moves at Deutsche Bank and also not for Postbank employees.”
Verdi calls for more mobile working
The union wants to enforce six percent more wages and a corona bonus for around 15,000 Postbank employees – 8,000 in branch sales and 7,000 in the infrastructure areas, which process payment transactions, for example. As in the collective bargaining round that has been running for private banks since July, Verdi also wants to stipulate that Postbank employees can work mobile for up to 60 percent of their working hours.
Due to its tradition of in-house collective agreements, Postbank negotiates separately. Duschck emphasized that he definitely saw scope for implementing the demands: “No bank in Germany will go to its knees because of a collective agreement.” Negotiations for 140,000 employees of private banks in Germany are to be resumed next Monday (January 17th) after an interruption. Next week, Thursday (January 20th), collective negotiations for 60,000 employees at state and development banks and several savings banks will enter the fifth round.