In the wage dispute at Deutsche Post, strikes by the Verdi trade union are leading to delays in the delivery of letters and parcels, according to the Bonn-based company.

Letters and parcels may only be delivered "with a delay of a few days", the company announced on Friday. Participation in the strikes varies from region to region - as do the effects. Nationwide, around 2.3 million parcels and around 13 million letters are affected by the protests. A total of around 16,700 employees have responded to Verdi's call to strike so far, which corresponds to around a third of the employees present. Verdi spokespersons had reported a high level of participation in the protests.

Verdi had called for nationwide strikes in the Post's letter and parcel centers, with delivery also affected in some areas. On Thursday, the second round of wage negotiations between the Bonn-based company and the union also failed to produce any tangible results. Verdi is demanding a 15 percent wage increase for the approximately 160,000 employees covered by collective agreements in Germany over a period of twelve months. Swiss Post had already rejected the salary demand several times as unrealistic.

"The employees in the companies will give a clear answer and emphasize their demands with strikes," announced Verdi's head of negotiations Andrea Kocsis. The protests began on Thursday evening and further strikes are to follow beyond Friday. The postal service had declared that it would put an offer on the table in the third round of negotiations on February 8 and 9.

(Report by Matthias Inverardi. Edited by Olaf Brenner. If you have any queries, please contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and the economy) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)