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Trade unions in Belgium have won a package for DHL Express workers affected by the transfer of the company's European headquarters.
The unions - Bond van Bedienden Technici en Kaderleden van het ABVV, Landelijke Bediende Centrale, Algemene Centrale der Liberale Vakbonden van België - signed the agreement with DHL on 31 March. The settlement follows a long and drawn out dispute over DHL Express managers' plans to move its European headquarters from Brussels to Bonn, Leipzig and Prague, as well as further afield to Costa Rica. The company's local and regional activities are expected to continue. The European Works Council, both its Belgian members and its Presidium, played a key role in achieving the settlement.
The deal provides: guidance and support for those moving to a new location; a "motivational fee" for the period running up to dismissal and redundancy remuneration that improves on the Claeys formula, which is used by courts to establish the amount of compensation due in dismissal cases. In addition, the agreement aims to retain jobs, for example through redeployment.
The union leaders issued a statement saying that it was crucial to restrict the number of jobs cut. It was also positive, they said, that local activities were not to be affected; this aspect was all the more important given the fact that European activities were being transferred elsewhere.
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