German postal service settles wage dispute, avoids strikes

Germany's Deutsche Post and the trade union Verdi on Saturday agreed on a significant hike in pay for the postal service's 160,000 domestic employees.

Under the new collective bargaining agreement, workers will receive an extra €340 ($362) per month from April 1, 2024, Post said. 

They will also receive a series of one-off inflation compensation payments between now and the start of the increased base wage, totaling around €3,000. 

Deutsche Post said these increases, designed to impact those on lower salaries in a more pronounced manner, would equate to an average pay increase in the region of 11.5% 

Deutsche Post also said monthly starting salaries for parcel sorters would rise by more than 20%, while delivery workers would get an 18% hike. Verdi put the increases for lower-paid workers at more modest levels, between 11 and 16%.

The company had previously rejected a 15% pay demand from the union, according to local media.

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

Strike plans likely shelved

The new 24-month deal is expected to avert an open-ended strike, which nearly 86% of members supported in a ballot on Thursday.

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

"With this collective agreement result, our most important goal of creating a compensation for inflation, especially for the lower income groups, is achieved according to the current forecasts of the expected rate of price increases," said Deputy Verdi chairwoman and negotiator Andrea Kocsis.

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

Deutsche Post personnel director Thomas Ogilvie said: "We have gone beyond our financial pain threshold in the interest of our employees, but also of our customers. Importantly, we were able to avoid prolonged strikes to the detriment of our customers and the company."

Post workers staged several walkouts 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 up with inflation, which hit a decadeslong high of 10.4% in October, according to the government statistics agency Destatis.

Workers were hit particularly hard last year by soaring fuel, energy and food prices, partly as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Just over a week ago, Verdi called out its members working for public transport firms, daycare centers, healthcare facilities and other areas of the public sector, among others.

Throughout January and February, thousands of flights were canceled across the country because of several one-day walkouts by airport workers.

Last fall, tens of thousands of workers in the electrical and metal industries walked off the job, demanding pay hikes close to the inflation rate.

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

In the United Kingdom, public sector staff, nurses, emergency workers, railway workers, teachers and university lecturers have staged multiple strikes, complaining that real wages have fallen behind their mainland European peers.

Employers and some politicians have called for restraint in wage negotiations over concerns that unreasonable pay demands could cause prices to soar further — a so-called inflation spiral. 

mm/fb (AFP, dpa)