Deutsche Post rejects concessions offered by workers

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Deutsche Post rejects concessions offered by workers in pay dispute

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Germany's Deutsche Post on Tuesday rejected an offer from its workers to scrap a demand for higher pay as a concession in a dispute over pay and conditions that has already led to a number of strikes.

The staff took strike action after Deutsche Post announced plans in January to create 10,000 new jobs at its parcel business by 2020, but said new workers would have to accept lower wages than other employees. The mail delivery company said this was to help it and its DHL express division to compete with rivals such as UPS and TNT.

Trade union Verdi has said such a move breached an agreement limiting how much business Deutsche Post can outsource. The union said it would only accept it if the company shortened the working hours of 140,000 employees and raised wages by 5.5 percent.

Verdi said on Tuesday it was willing to scrap its demand for a pay increase but continued push for Deutsche Post to include staff at the new parcel units in collective wage agreements that applied to other workers at the company in Germany.

"There won't be peace in the company unless the 49 DHL delivery units are integrated into the Deutsche Post AG," it said in a statement.

Deutsche Post said Verdi's offer was "deceptive."

"We have a structural problem because our wages are twice as high as those paid by our competitors," Deutsche Post board member Melanie Kreis said in a statement.