German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has spoken out vehemently against dumping wages at postal service providers.
“I am happy to be able to say that we are doing everything we can to ensure that it is also good paid work and covered by collective agreements – and that there are no dumping wages in this sector,” Scholz said Saturday after attending a works meeting at the Deutsche Post Berlin 2 branch in the Stahnsdorf mail center near Potsdam.
Frank Norkus, chairman of the works council, had earlier told the chancellor of the staff’s concerns about increasing private competition. This competition must be organized fairly, Norkus demanded. “Wage and social dumping as a business model must not have a future,” he stressed. “That’s why we expect licenses in the industry to be awarded only to companies that comply with applicable collective bargaining standards and working conditions, and that this is enforced.”
At the mail center, Scholz was given a demonstration of a sorting system for large letters, and he also inserted a stack of newspapers into the system himself. He then posed for photographers in the courtyard on an electric cargo bike and took an e-truck for a spin together with Deutsche Post DHL Group CEO Tobias Meyer.
Stahnsdorf in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district is part of Scholz’s Bundestag constituency. Deutsche Post supplies its customers in the greater Potsdam area and in the southwestern districts of Berlin with mail items via the mail center.
(dpa-AFX)
