Netherlands: TNT Post proposes alternative to unions to revive negotiations

Harry Kooistra Director of TNT Post, proposed, in a letter sent on Saturday, a new program. To get the negotiations on the future collective agreement and a social plan presented as unavoidable out of their deadlock, TNT Post is now considering cutting postmen’s wages not by 15%, as announced in March, but by 3.5% over the next couple years, with a wage freeze in 2012. If unions accept, the group gives up the planned 11,000 job cuts by 2015 and targets 1,000 job cuts by 2012. Besides, all the employees laid off would be offered training, to find a job in another, more promising sector.
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but by 3.5% over the next couple years, with a wage freeze in 2012. If unions accept, the group gives up the planned 11,000 job cuts by 2015 and targets 1,000 job cuts by 2012. Besides, all the employees laid off would be offered training, to find a job in another, more promising sector.

Step towards the right direction. “This is a step in the right direction” said Jan Willem Lefebre, negotiator for the big Abvakabo civil servants’ union, affiliated with the Federation of Dutch Unions (FNV). “Th

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