Germany’s united services union, Ver.di, said on Friday that about 1,600 employees of DHL Home Delivery will vote in the coming few days on possible strike action.
The union said DHL’s latest offer in the third round of negotiations for a new labour contract was unacceptable.
The latest round of talks, on 5th-6th September, saw DHL offering a one-time EUR 100 bonus to its Home Delivery staff.
Andrea Kocsis, the Ver.di deputy chairman, said: “The employer’s one-time offer of EUR 100 payment is a provocation. The (union’s) Tariff Commission has declared that negotiations have failed.”
Andrea Kocsis, the Ver.di deputy chairman, says DHL’s one-off EUR 100 bonus is “provocation” as her union prepares strike action
Ver.di said it wanted a 6.5% pay rise for a 12-month labour contract for its DHL Home Delivery members. The union had warned its members of the need for possible strike action even before the third round of negotiations.
DHL
Deutsche Post DHL told Post&Parcel in Friday that the DHL Home Delivery business includes services such as two-man delivery, fulfillment and parcel delivery.
The company said it was restructuring the business in the wake of the bankruptcy of the Neckermann mail order business, which went bust at the end of last year and was a major customer for DHL Home Delivery.
Part of the restructuring was aiming to secure continuous employment for the staff involved, said Deutsche Post DHL spokesperson Dunja Kuhlmann.
“Due to the challenging market conditions, we asked Ver.di to postpone the wage talks until next year, and offered a single payment of EUR 100 for each employee this year,” Kuhlmann explained.
“This has not been accepted by Ver.di, but we are of course still open to additional rounds of negotiations.”
The Deutsche Post DHL spokesperson said she believed strike action would not affect parcel services nationwide, since “only a very small number” of the company’s employees work in the parcel delivery side
“Only certain districts in a very limited number of cities would be affected as well as some of our logistics centres,” she said.
Kuhlmann added that the industrial action should have no impact on the run-up to the festive season, and that if it affects certain logistics centres or cities, “we will do everything we can to deliver the highest possible service to our customers.”
