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Employees in the parcel service: How fair is the »last mile« to the customer?
Photo: Bernd Wüstneck / dpa
According to the services union Ver.di, exploitation and precarious employment in the parcel industry have reached "unbearable levels".
"It is unacceptable if the daily parcel delivery in our country is partly ensured with exploitative and illegal working conditions," said Ver.di deputy chairwoman Andrea Kocsis on Tuesday.
She called for a law to safeguard the rights of employees and in particular a ban on subcontractors.
"Almost all large parcel service providers rely on subcontractors to rid themselves of responsibility for the working conditions on the particularly costly last mile," criticized Kocsis.
Those who suffer are those who work for the subcontractors.
As a rule, there are no works councils or even collective bargaining agreements there, because these rights can hardly be enforced in practice, especially in the case of micro-enterprises in such subcontractor chains.
20 kg maximum weight
To protect the deliverers from increasing physical strain, the union also called for heavy parcels to be marked.
For parcels that are only delivered by one person, the weight must be limited to 20 kilograms.
Kocsis demanded that a ban on the use of external personnel for transport and delivery by parcel service providers should be the core of a law to safeguard the rights of employees.
This would prevent subcontractor chains and work contracts, which are the mechanism for wage and social dumping in the industry.
Ultimately, the success of such a law "stands and falls with the control," as Kocsis emphasized.
Therefore, there must be more posts at customs.
mike/AFP
