Dutch postal giant PostNL announced it will stop the use of third-party contracting and begin working with temporary employees in its parcel sorting centers.

The move to end contracting comes shortly after FNV, the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation, accused Randstad subsidiary Tempo Team of evading Collective Labour Agreement rules for workers at mail company PostNL.

PostNL said that in the past 10 years, all parties have worked with contracting partners to the satisfaction of all parties. However, the company said it has listened “carefully to the recent social discussion about contracting and decided together with contracting partners, to complete commercial contracting as quickly as possible.”

“Employees employed by contracting parties were informed by their employer about the individual consequences,” the company said in a statement.

PostNL said it will start phasing out its contract agreements this year and complete its transition by 2020.

The company plans to hire at least 500 parcel delivery personnel as permanent employees this year.

“PostNL thinks equal pay for package sorters is important and wants to provide clarity in the social discussion about contracting,” the company said in a statement. “In addition to the deployment of many permanent employees at PostNL, flexible deployment of labour in the sorting centers is also required. This will be done in the future by means of broadcasting (temporary work).

“Temporary workers are rewarded on the basis of the collective labour agreement for temporary workers (ABU collective agreement) and therefore the hirer's remuneration of the PostNL collective agreement,” the company stated.

Liesbeth Kaashoek, director of parcels & logistics at PostNL, commented, “Our people deliver an enormous performance every day by delivering more than 800,000 parcels throughout the Netherlands and Belgium. The parcel sorters are an indispensable link in this process. We once opted for contracting because our partners are able to carry out the sorting process better and the desire to be relieved as much as possible in the management of our sorting processes. We continue to work on the quality of our services and a healthy future for everyone who works for and with us.”