FNV, the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation announced that it has reached an agreement with Dutch temporary employment agency In Person on the equal pay of over 400 parcel sorters.

The parcel sorters were temporary agency workers who worked for PostNL, a mail and parcel solutions firm. More than 400 temporary agency workers will be paid by 1 July 2018, according to the PostNL collective labour agreement.

In December 2017, FNV alleged that both PostNL and the In Person were liable for the underpayment of more than 400 temporary workers who sort packages at PostNL's parcel depots. The employees were not paid according to the PostNL collective labour agreement.

Mariëtte van der Neut, director of FNV Flex, commented, 'PostNL deprives these employees of all their rights via a construction with an empty temporary employment agency that hires itself. No sorter is employed by the company and people carry 800 packages per hour for the minimum wage. They work long nights for little money. "

“PostNL has devised this contracting construction to save on wage costs,” FNV stated. “PostNL has designated an employment agency as a subcontractor. This agency then leases sorters via a second staffing firm. This is how PostNL evades the temporary employment agreement. The sorters earn the statutory minimum wage, work on a call basis and often only hear on the day itself - and if so, at what time - they have to work. In Person has entered into an agreement with FNV and its package retailers and are going to pay the same as the permanent staff of PostNL.”

“We are very happy with this, and we hope that the other temporary employment agencies at PostNL will also repent and stop underpaying,” Van der Neut said.

In Person also made a statement, “In Person sees it as its social responsibility as well as in the context of good employment practices to adequately reward and thus comply with the set requirements.”

FNV added that In Person will also pay a supplementary payment to the 120 sorters who are members of the FNV Union and those have worked or currently working at the depots of PostNL in Goes, Waddinxveen, Dordrecht and Amersfoort.