The offer applies to deliverers who are already employed, but also to new recruits. In this way, PostNL hopes to formulate an answer to the acute shortage of personnel in the run-up to the busy month of December. The former state-owned company is at least 1,300 deliverers short of a workforce of 16,500 postmen. In recent months, postal workers have therefore been asked to work overtime and office workers and sorters have also walked quarters.
The offer for a permanent appointment comes on top of the increase in the collective labor agreement wage of 8 percent that the postal and parcel company already promised this spring. This collective labor agreement came about after very difficult negotiations with the trade unions. The FNV demanded that the salary, which is around the minimum wage, be increased to 14 euros, but the postal and parcel company did not consider this feasible because the price for the delivery would then increase sharply. There was, however, a registration bonus of 250 euros for tight areas and a compensation for the (electric) bicycle.
The postal division has been PostNL’s concern for some time. The number of letters that must be delivered has been declining for years (barring an uptick during the pandemic), but the law requires PostNL to deliver the mail five days a week. In 2019, it led to a fine of 2 million euros because 5.66 percent of letters were not delivered within a day.