Holland - New post delivery firms break job agreement

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New postal delivery companies such as Sandd, SelektMail (Deutsche Post) and Netwerk VSP (part of TNT) have failed to make sure at least 14% of delivery workers have a proper contract as promised last year, Trouw reports on Wednesday.

Although the necessary 3,500 workers have been offered a contract, just 0.5% of delivery staff have signed them, the paper says.

'We have shown our goodwill but eventually it is the delivery worker who choses,' Sandd CEO Gert-Jan Morsink told the Volkskrant.

Unions claim the employers are discouraging workers from signing, by warning that they will have less right to holidays, for example. In addition, the contracts include low pay and poor working conditions, the unions say.

Liberalisation

Last year unions and employers agreed 80% of delivery staff would have a formal employment contract by 2012, in return for the full liberalisation of letter delivery services. Most now work on a piece rate basis and are paid for each item of mail they deliver. They do not get holiday or sick pay.

New players are able to undercut TNT's own delivery charges because non-contract labour is cheaper. The new firms are currently involved in legal action to have the agreement torn up.

Union spokesman Egon Groen said in Trouw that the government is partly to blame for the situation because it buys in budget delivery services for bulk mail.