Status: 25.11.2023, 17:36 PM
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A postman distributes letters. © Philipp Schulze/dpa
After a quarter of a century, the Postal Act is to be comprehensively reformed and adapted to the digital age. However, the proposed law is causing deep worry lines among employee representatives.
Berlin - The Federal Ministry of Economics' proposal to reform the Postal Act has met with criticism from the Verdi trade union. The rule change would lead to a "massive endangerment" of collective bargaining jobs, said the deputy head of the union, Andrea Kocsis, on Saturday in Berlin. In doing so, it referred to a paragraph according to which the obligation to transport letters as quickly as possible is to be softened. The ministry wants the majority of letters posted today not to have to arrive on the next working day, but only on the third working day - this would give Swiss Post less time pressure and could reduce costs.
Verdi fears that the cost reduction would be associated with job cuts. The planned change in the term is firmly rejected. "We urge the federal government and the Bundestag to improve the law," Kocsis said.
On the other hand, the union takes a positive view of the plan that parcels weighing ten kilograms or more must be labelled in the future. This will allow parcel carriers to better assess the load and reduce the risk of back damage. "This is the first step towards more health protection in the workplace," said the trade unionist.
"However, it is insufficient and unrealistic that parcels that exceed an individual weight of 20 kilograms will remain in one-person delivery if a suitable technical aid is provided." A hand truck is not enough to protect health. Parcels that weigh more than 20 kilos should always be delivered by two people, Verdi demands.
The DHL Post Group has 190,000 employees in the Post & Parcel Germany division, 116,500 of whom deliver letters and parcels. The Postal Act was last comprehensively reformed at the end of the 90s. Since then, the volume of letters has shrunk significantly in the digital age, but the cost structure for Swiss Post has remained similar. The reform proposal is intended to take into account the fact that the speed of letter transport is no longer so important for many consumers today - the main thing is that the consignments arrive reliably at some point. Dpa