Germany : Angela Merkel’s government sticks to minimum wage in postal services

Threats of dismissals. On December 4, Pin, owned by the editor Axel Springer, had announced the need to lay off at least 1000 out of 9000 workers as a consequence of the expected introduction of a minimum wage adjusted from 8 to 9.8 € per hour on January 1, 2008. According to its leader, Günter Thiel, the large coalition, in accepting this wage rate “dictated” by Deutsche Post and ver.di, has “deliberately” condemned thousands of jobs and swept away several billions € of investment in Germany. “It is particularly regrettable that the people concerned by this decision are essentially low skilled employees and former hard-core unemployed who will again become jobless to the detriment of public welfare funds”, he deplored. The day before, the other main competitor in the German postal market, TNT Post Deutschland, subsidiary of the Dutch group TNT, had also announced its intention to abandon plans for expansion in Germany scheduled to start after the opening of the German postal market on January 1, 2008. Employees in these firms earn on average 7.33 € a month.
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e people concerned by this decision are essentially low skilled employees and former hard-core unemployed who will again become jobless to the detriment of public welfare funds”, he deplored. The day before, the other main competitor in the German postal market, TNT Post Deutschland, subsidiary of the Dutch group TNT, had also announced its intention to abandon plans for expansion in Germany scheduled to start after the opening of the German postal market on January 1, 2008. Employees in these

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