FNV demands change in parcel industry

The FNV Transport and Logistics trade union is demanding that working conditions
for workers in the parcel sector improve more quickly. FNV has therefore sent an urgent letter to TLN and national politicians
regarding the poor labour relations.

The urgent letter
states that the FNV has had enough. Egon Groen, chief negotiator at
FNV: “
Ourpatience is running out. As early as September last year,
Asscher called on the sector to come up with plans to
.” Groen goes on to write in his letter that he is dissatisfied with the
actions taken by politicians in The Hague. “Minister Asscher of Social Affairs and
Employment sent a letter to the House of Representatives in September 2015, in which
he called on the sector to take initiatives to put an end to the
poor labour relations in the parcel delivery market.” In this market, which has grown considerably
recently, there are thousands of self-employed workers who often
all work for a single client. “Asscher himself is said to have been keeping a close eye on the situation
. Meanwhile, everyone is turning a blind eye; nothing is happening
and things are going from bad to worse.”

Secret agreements
In the letter,
, the FNV accuses the tax authorities of continuing to make secret deals and
inaccurate agreements with business owners, with the self-employed bearing the brunt
. In some cases, the business owners are paid so little that they
have to circumvent the collective agreement. The strongly worded letter mainly criticises DHL and DPD
. DHL is said to operate a piecework system whereby delivery drivers are paid
. As a result, wages can sometimes fall below the minimum wage. DPD is said to
pay so poorly that the collective agreement is circumvented to ensure that the delivery drivers
still receive some payment. Groen explains the problem once again:
“
there’s something wrong at every company, even though that shouldn’t be the case, because the parcel market is
a growth market”, but the money ends up with some suit-and-tie executive instead of the
people who really deserve it.”

Demand
FNV

The aim
of the letter is to ensure that the minister and the companies sit down together
to discuss the matter and resolve the problem. An urgent appeal
from the minister is simply being ignored, whilst the situation for parcel delivery drivers
is visibly deteriorating. The trade union has therefore sent a letter today to the employers’ organisation Transport and
Logistiek Nederland (TLN) today, in which it
consultations as soon as possible to put an end to this.

Editorial LogistiekProfs