German postal service to cut 8,000 jobs

The cuts will be made this year "in a socially responsible manner", logistics giant DHL, which owns the postal service, said in a statement.

Last year "the number of traditional, document-carrying letters continued to decline," said DHL in a statement. This has been a long-standing problem in the digital age. 

While revenues from parcels increased, this could not "compensate for the declining mail volumes and rising costs", particularly due to pay agreements struck with unions, it added.

The job cuts, which were announced just days after the postal company reached a pay deal for its workers, are part of a broader drive by DHL to reduce costs by €1 billion. 

At the start of the year, Deutsche Post had already tried to claw back losses in its core business by raising the price of sending letters by 10.5 percent.

The company wanted to increase its prices further, but was barred by doing so by Germany's Federal Network Agency. 

READ ALSO: Why postal delivery times in Germany are likely to become slower

Union pay deal

Deutsche Post has about 187,000 employees in Germany, out of around 500,000 staff who work for DHL worldwide.

As part of a recent pay deal with services union Verdi, Deutsche Post agreed to a five-percent pay rise over two years and at least one day of extra holiday for its postal workers in Germany.

The deal applies retroactively, with staff receiving the extra pay backdated to January 1st this year.

Following the announcement of the deal on Tuesday, DHL board member Nikola Hagleitner warned that the the wage agreement and current economic downturn meant cost-cutting measures would have to be "expanded and accelerated".

She did not initially provide any further details.

In 2024, DHL's net profit fell by 9.3 percent to €3.3 billion while revenues increased three percent to €84.2 billion.

READ ALSO: How Deutsche Post wants to create a 'two-tier' system for mail in Germany

Looking towards 2025, DHL CEO Tobias Meyer said the company expected the gloabl political and economic environment to "remain volatile". This could put a dampener on profits in freight and supply chain services. 

With reporting by AFP