German postal service resolves wage dispute, avoids strikes

Germany’s Deutsche Post and the Verdi trade union agreed on Saturday to a significant increase in wages for the postal service’s 160,000 domestic workers.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, workers will receive an 11.5% raise or an extra €340 ($362) per month from April 1, 2024, Deutsche Post reported.

The two sides also agreed on a one-off payment of €3,000 to employees to compensate for inflation.

The Deutsche Post said monthly starting salaries for parcel sorters would increase by more than 20%, while couriers would see an 18% increase. Verdi put the increases for lower-wage workers at between 11 and 16%.

The company had previously rejected a union wage demand of 15%, according to local media.

Deutsche Post employees last received a pay increase in January last year, of 2%.

Strike Plans Probably Shelved

The new 24-month deal is expected to avoid an indefinite strike, which nearly 86% of members backed in a vote on Thursday.

Verdi recommended that workers accept the deal in an upcoming separate vote.

“With this collective bargaining outcome, our most important objective of creating an inflation offset, especially for lower income groups, is achieved in line with current forecasts of the expected rate of price increases,” said Vice President president and negotiator of Verdi, Andrea Kocsis.

Kocsis spoke of a “good result that could not have been achieved without the pressure and willingness to strike”.

Deutsche Post’s Personnel Director Thomas Ogilvie said: “We went beyond our financial pain threshold in the interests of our employees but also our customers. More importantly, we were able to avoid strikes to the detriment of our customers and the company .”

Postal workers had several stoppages in January and February, which delayed the delivery of letters and parcels to millions of consumers and businesses.

Strike action set to continue

Unions across Germany have been in fierce negotiations with employers over the past year to ensure wages keep pace with inflation, which hit a decades-old high of 10.4% in October, according to the government statistics agency Destatis.

Workers were particularly hard hit last year by rising fuel, energy and food prices, in part as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

A little over a week ago, Verdi called its members who work in public transport companies, kindergartens, health facilities and other areas of the public sector, among others.

Throughout January and February, thousands of flights were canceled across the country due to multiple day-long stoppages by airport staff.

Last fall, tens of thousands of workers in the electrical and metal industries walked out of their jobs, demanding wage increases close to the rate of inflation.

Similar large-scale walkouts have taken place across France in recent weeks against inflation and pension reform.

In the UK, public sector workers, nurses, first responders, railway workers, teachers and university professors have staged several strikes, complaining that real wages have lagged behind their peers in continental Europe.

Employers and some politicians have called for restraint in wage negotiations due to concerns that unreasonable wage demands could send prices higher – the so-called inflationary spiral.

mm/fb (AFP, dpa)