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Workers in France win agreement at DHL Express

Transport workers employed by DHL Express in France have won a significant agreement following six days of strike action.



Some 200 workers, represented by the ITF-affiliated transport union CGT, walked out on strike on 29 January at DHL Express’s sorting facility in Gonesse, in the north-eastern suburbs of Paris. The dispute focused on pay discrepancies between employees.



However, following a meeting between management and the unions on Monday evening, an agreement was reached, providing workers with substantial gains. These include: an increase in the company pay scale with a minimum wage of 1400 euros at the time of recruitment over 13 months from 1 January 2009; a wage increase for 61 per cent of the lowest paid workers at the Gonesse site ranging from six per cent for workers such as forklift truck drivers and warehouse workers and five per cent for supervisors and foremen to 9.2 per cent for administrative staff.



These benefits are set to be backdated to 1 January 2009. Similar agreements will be rolled out at sites where the biggest pay discrepancies have been identified from April 2009, and across all DHL sites in France in 2010 and 2011.



A union statement said: “CGT fought particularly to ensure that the financial impact on the wages of the strikers would be minimised; only one day will be deducted from February’s pay packet. The union CGT DHL Express congratulates strikers for their engagement, their solidarity and their extraordinary determination.”