TNT reaches deal on job cuts, pay rises with union

Dutch postal company TNT announced it had concluded an in-principle agreement with labour unions resulting in job cuts.

Dutch postal company TNT, one of Europe's biggest, announced Friday it had concluded an ''in-principle agreement'' with labour unions resulting in thousands of job cuts but pay rises for those left.

- TNT and the trade unions have reached an in-principle agreement on a collective labour agreement and a social plan - the company said in a statement.

TNT spokesman Ernst Moeksis said the deal would mean pay rises for workers in 2010 and 2011, ''but also dismissals between now and December 31, 2012.''

The company had previously announced that it intended cutting 11,000 jobs out of a total 58,000 in its postal unit in the Netherlands, where postal volumes were declining by about six percent per year, mainly due to liberalisation of the market and competition from the Internet.

The new agreement has to be officially approved by the company's workers by March 15 this year. TNT staff rejected an earlier draft deal in a referendum in April 2009, which would have resulted in salary cuts in exchange for job retention.

TNT, which also has an express courier business, announced in December it would sell its mail activities in Europe in a bid to save 200 million euros (301 million dollars) in 2010.

The company employs some 152,000 people worldwide.