PostNL has been hit by protest strikes after many of its self-employed parcel deliverers rejected an offer of a 10% pay increase or to become company employees.
Industrial action temporarily closed four of PostNL Parcels’ 19 depots yesterday and some depots were also affected today. “Some depots were blocked for a couple of hours yesterday, so we could not send or receive parcels,” a company spokesman told CEP-Research.
The dispute has broken out over the issue of pay and working conditions for the approx. 1,145 ‘independent deliverers’ who make up the bulk of the Dutch postal group’s parcel delivery workers. In addition, the company has up to 400 parcel delivery staff on permanent employment contracts.
Over the last few months, the self-employed delivery workers, who contractually are only allowed to work for PostNL, have been campaigning for better pay and working conditions. The FNV union federation had called on the company to offer the deliverers employment contracts or allow them to work for other companies.
Under a deal negotiated with the FNV, PostNL agreed to offer independent parcel deliverers a clear choice. They could sign an indefinite employment contract under the same terms and conditions as other staff under the company’s collective labour agreement. Alternatively, they could remain self-employed and their remuneration would be increased by about 10%.
Yme Pasma, head of the parcels unit, said: “By making this offer, PostNL is taking an important step towards a social and competitive delivery model. The offer is also groundbreaking in the parcels market. And it creates clarity for all our parcel deliverers.”
PostNL said that as a result of the offer there would be no difference in costs between independent parcel deliverers and PostNL employees, while its annual labour costs would increase by €15 – 20 million.
Reinier Stroo, chief negotiator from FNV’s Transport & Logistics section, described the deal as “an improvement for many delivery drivers. It is good that every independent parcel deliverer who now works for PostNL can decide for themselves whether or not to accept the offer."
But the offer, presented by the FNV union to independent deliverers at three poorly-attended meetings last Sunday, was rejected by a majority of those present. In addition, the SubcoPartners union, which reportedly represents about 350 of the parcel workers, rejected the offer saying independent deliverers needed a 25% pay increase “to survive” while an employment contract “is not an option”.
Yesterday, after the depot blockages broke out, PostNL went to court to seek an injunction to stop the protests. SubcoPartners distanced itself from the depot blockages and agreed to resume talks, according to the company. Today, however, the protests continued.
The PostNL spokesman said: “We were very surprised this morning at the actions and we don’t understand why they are doing this. We want talks to resume.”
