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New collective agreement for Deutsche Post workers in Germany

German affiliate Verdi has brokered a new deal with DHL that safeguards jobs and provides older workers with a guarantee of employment up to the age of 67.

The new settlement, reached during the ninth round of negotiations, extends dismissal protection to the company’s 130,000 employees until 2015. Meanwhile a “generations pact” allows older employees to work actively until they reach the legal retirement age of 67 through a partial retirement system. There will be “working-time accounts,” enabling employees to build up a balance of time during their active professional lives, which they can use for non-working periods or to work fewer hours when they get older. In addition, Deutsche Post has said it would set up a “demographic fund” to increase payments to employees during partial retirement.

The deal also creates employment opportunities for young people as more than 1,000 qualified trainees are taken on over the next year. Meanwhile at least 1,500 part-time employees will also receive a permanent contract at the end of 2011.

Other benefits also include a new annual leave policy as outlined by the German General Equal-Treatment Act which now takes into account job tenure, rather than age.

Deputy chairwoman of the Verdi Union, Andrea Kocsis, welcomed the agreement: “We have signed a generation pact that will allow our colleagues to reach the retirement age healthy while opening up new opportunities for young employees.”

She acknowledged that the top-up payment due during partial retirement had a social component as employees on a lower income would receive a higher top-up payment than those with on a better salary. “We want the workers who work physically hard, but are not well paid to take part in this model,” Koscis stressed.