Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil wants to improve the working conditions of parcel couriers. With the help of an amendment to the postal law, he wants to enforce “that parcels that weigh more than 20 kilograms no longer have to be carried by one person alone,” said the SPD politician picture on sunday. In such cases, according to his ideas, forwarding agencies with at least two people should be commissioned in the future. This should also make delivery considerably more expensive.
In the coalition agreement, the SPD, Greens and FDP agreed to revise the postal law and to further develop “social-ecological standards” and to strengthen “fair competition”. The law is still as it was in the 1990s. It is the responsibility of Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens). In his department it was said on Monday that the amendment was currently being discussed in the government. It is designed in such a way that the working conditions in the industry are also taken into account.
Cabinet colleague Heil is now bringing concrete expectations into the debate. “We also have to deal with the question of what happens to the employees who carry a heavy package to the 5th floor. This is about the health of people who make our everyday lives easier with their work and keep the country running. ” His family also orders online, Heil said, adding: “So I’m benefiting from it and don’t want to criticize it.”
His suggestion is: “Parcels that weigh more than 20 kilograms must then be delivered by two people in the future.” Parcels that are heavier than ten kilos should be marked so that the deliverers know what they can expect. The Verdi trade union had been campaigning for these steps for a long time. Deputy Verdi chairwoman Andrea Kocsis welcomed Heil’s initiative and said that Süddeutsche Zeitung: “Since employers are not committed to the health of their employees in the long term, the legislature must act actively. The announcement by Federal Labor Minister Heil is therefore very good news for all employees in the parcel service industry.”
The FDP still sees open questions
According to Heil, the number of parcels rose from 2.6 to 4.5 billion between 2017 and 2021. It’s convenient to “buy everything online from the comfort of your sofa and have it delivered to your front door.” The Ministry of Economic Affairs complained in parts of the industry of “non-transparent sub-subcontractor relationships and repeated violations of labor and social law requirements.” Anyone who tries to “gain competitive advantages at the expense of the employees will in future have to reckon with significant sanctions up to and including exclusion from the market”.
The FDP still sees open questions. The chairman of the Committee on Labor and Social Affairs, Jens Beeck, said Süddeutsche Zeitung: “We will gladly examine the basis of the minister’s announcement that in future he will only allow parcels up to 20 kilograms instead of the previous 31.5 kilograms.” Taking into account “modern inventions such as the sack truck, the minister will know exactly why 20 kg is correct and not 18.7 or 22.15 kg”. Occupational health and safety is an important task for the minister. Beeck pointed out that shipping could be more expensive.
Freight forwarders usually charge a multiple for packages over 20 kilograms in weight. Depending on the delivery method and provider, more than 100 euros can be charged for shipping in Germany, while it is usually less than 20 euros for postal delivery.
Support also came from the Union. The chairman of the workers’ group of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Axel Knoerig, said: “Parcel carriers have a strenuous job. Nobody should have to ruin their health in the process. It is therefore necessary for the federal government to take up the demand made by the trade unions for a long time that the weight limit for postal items is reduced.”
Deutsche Post DHL considers a legal limit to be conceivable “if this limit then applies uniformly and is also used and controlled by competitors,” as a Post spokesman told the German Press Agency. In the group, the proportion of shipments over 20 kilos is currently 1.7 percent.