Post office delivery workers planning strike

Trade union FNV is threatening PostNL with protest actions if the company does not respond to the unions demands for better working conditions for the thousands of independent delivery drivers by 12:00 p.m. on Thursday. Union director Renier Stroo announced this on Tuesday, NU reports. According to Stroo, negotiations on the delivery workers collapsed last week. FNV thinks the proposals that PostNL has made are inadequate. The union wants package delivers who remain independent to work for a minimum hourly rate. According to Stroo, the postal company will not go beyond an additional fee per week. "But the independent deliverers often work a 50 hour week or even longer. The longer the working week, the lower the hourly rate works out", he said to NU. According to PostNL, the average working week for independent delivers is about 40 hours. "Possibly a package deliverer adds his journey time to his work time. Then you could come out at 50 hours", a spokesperson said. FNV wants the deliverers who can be employed on a permanent contract to be employed on pay scale 3. According to the union, PostNL wont go past pay scale 2. PostNL states that the function of package delivery is now formally valued on pay scale 2. It used to be scale 3, but was down graded as there are now less additional services included in the function. FNV decided to set a post an ultimatum on Sunday after a meeting with the package deliverers. The union wants an end to the "continuous competition conditions between different groups of package deliverers". PostNL is disappointed by the unions ultimatum, stating that their proposal is intended to have independent deliverers and those permanently employed by the company cost the same. This would eliminate competition based on cost. "We therefore do not understand why FNV wants to make the self-employed more expensive than our own employees." a spokesperson said to NU.