The Post would pay its employees 11.5 percent more wages, but Verdi demands 15 percent. While the employees are still voting on strikes, the company is considering outsourcing the mail business. The Human Resources Director says they will not accept the maximum demands.
Because the Verdi union is insisting on maximum demands in the collective bargaining dispute with Deutsche Post, the group is considering outsourcing its mail business to a greater extent. This could also endanger jobs, explained Post HR Director Thomas Ogilvie to the newspapers of the Funke media group. "As Post for Germany, we have built up an operating model over many decades that operates exclusively with our own resources. If Verdi is now questioning all of this against the background of short-term maximum wage increases, we will have to rethink our operating model," said Ogilvie.
This would also affect jobs. "If we can no longer invest sufficiently in new business locations, the question arises as to whether we can and want to continue to operate these locations ourselves, or whether we outsource them," the postal director told the newspapers. Ogilvie was also convinced that Deutsche Post would have no problem finding the necessary skilled workers: "Since we pay some of the highest wages in the industry, we definitely have an advantage." In this scenario, Ogilvie does not fear any compromises in quality either.
At the same time, Ogilvie, who is also Labor Director at Swiss Post, made it clear that he sees no further scope for accommodation: "We see no possibility of further increasing the total volume of the offer. The existing offer is the "maximum of what we can represent, if we want to continue to be the post office for Germany tomorrow as we know it today." Should there be a strike, Deutsche Post is prepared. "We have prepared emergency plans so that the disruption to customers is kept to a minimum", Ogilvie promised that it would be checked whether it was possible to work with third parties in certain areas, and that they were "prepared for all eventualities" with regard to the storage of letters and parcels in external warehouses.
Collective bargaining between Verdi and Deutsche Post failed in the third round last week. Verdi is demanding 15 percent more wages for the approximately 160,000 employees with a collective bargaining term of 12 months. The Post had offered an average of 11.5 percent across all salary groups with a term of 24 months. The Verdi ballot on strikes is currently underway.
