Netherlands: TNT to cut “4,500” jobs maximum

TNT Post, the former public post in the Netherlands, partially privatized, announced a “maximum” of 4,500 forced redundancies on September 17th.  However, the trade unions are expecting 8,000, in spite of the reassuring declarations of Gerard Aben, human resources manager at TNT Post.  He says that “€5,000 retraining bonuses will be paid and that TNT Post can offer work in other companies and subsidiaries of the group” to the employees affected.  Talks that should be quite stormy opened on September 20th with the trade unions.  TNT Post’s objective is to cut 11,000 jobs by the end of 2012 – corresponding to 8,500 full time jobs.  TNT Post doesn’t conceal its ambition to become a “part-time” organization where full time (25 or more hours for mailmen) permanent jobs will be, in the long run, gone.  Massive cuts to TNT Post’s 23,000 jobs have been subject to arduous discussion since 2007.  While 10,000 have already been cut over the past decade, TNT announced 7,000 layoffs in August 2007 without consulting with the works council or the trade unions.  In this company, known as one of the toughest in the Netherlands in social terms, the management and unions reached an agreement in principle on a 15% pay cut for mailmen, in March 2009, in exchange for job security until 2012.  However, union members rejected this offer (a vote is held before any major decision in the Netherlands).  Then, the management threatened to cut 11,000 jobs over 6 years if the unions didn’t let go a little.  A new agreement in principle finally provided for 3,500 layoffs and a 1.9% wage increase within the framework of a new collective agreement negotiated in January 2010.