The decision by the works council at international parcel and package logistics operators UPS to refuse agreement to the engagement of new employees for one-shift jobs with a 17-hour week at its Ditzingen site has been upheld in German law.
UPS had rejected calls by the works council to increase working time at the site to 34 hours a week in two shifts, insisting that it wanted to engage new workers on one-shift positions at 17 hours a week. As a result, the works council has refused in over 100 cases, in line with Article 99 BetrVG of German labour-management relations law, to agree to this proposal, arguing that it disadvantaged workers who want to build up their working time.
The Provincial Labour Court ruled in favour of the works council, stating that UPS’s restriction on rendering personnel engagement more flexible by way of additional work in the form of double-shift jobs was untenable. It also stated that part-time employment laws meant that those employees have the right to increase their working hours by way of occupying an appropriate free position. The court also ruled that cases of standing in for personnel, such as during holidays and in the event of illness, should be increased at UPS.
Works council member Mahmut Gemili said: “It has been a victory for us! And the judgement has effects on the whole of UPS as a company in Germany and on the companies who use a business model like that. We couldn’t have done it without the support of good advice and great support from ver.di, or without the solidarity of everyone concerned.”
ITF's global head - supply chain and logistics, Ingo Marowsky, commented: “This is a breakthrough for workers at UPS in Germany. Companies who are into exploiting workers by having them in untenable precarious employment, like UPS, have been taught a lesson by our affiliate ver.di’s activists. We congratulate them on their success and hope this ver.di spirit will expand throughout UPS and similar service providers in the whole of Germany.”
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