The German post office plans to cut about 3,000 mail carrier jobs, or nearly 4 percent of that work force, as it tries to slash costs and boost a wilting stock price.
Deutsche Post AG intends to start cutting from its 80,000 mail-carrying positions this summer but will stick to a contract that specifies no carriers can be fired before 2004, spokesman Uwe Bensin said. He did not specify when the cuts would be completed. The reduction could come through attrition and early retirement.
The German government sold 29 percent of Deutsche Post in an initial public offering in November in a bid to give up majority control. But since the IPO, shares have tumbled 25 percent, and the company already has cut 8,000 of 12,500 jobs at its transport division.
The German post office got a boost last week when the German parliament extended the company's lucrative domestic letter monopoly, which accounts for the bulk of its profits, by five years through the end of 2007.
