Bargaining expected to continue: Union
FRANKFURT (Reuters) — Workers at Deutsche Bank's retail arm Postbank are threatening to stage a strike over a wage dispute, labour union Verdi said on Sunday, ahead of a round of negotiations due to start on Monday.
"If there is no agreement there could be open-ended strikes," Verdi's chief negotiator Jan Duscheck said in a statement, adding that 97.7 per cent of balloted workers had voted in favour of industrial action.
Postbank is currently being integrated into Deutsche Bank after Germany's biggest lender unsuccessfully tried to sell the business, which labour bosses worry could lead to painful cuts.
Verdi is demanding that Postbank extend job guarantees until 2022 and pay around 18,000 workers at Postbank and related units five per cent more.
Postbank has so far offered an extension of guarantees until 2019 and a 2.5 per cent pay hike in two steps.
Talks had collapsed last month, but Verdi said earlier this week that Postbank's management had signalled it would present an improved offer when talks resume on Monday. Postbank has declined to comment on whether it planned to make a new offer.
