Action Needed As Report Exposes Widespread Harrassment At DHL

The independent investigation, ‘Breaking the Code’, was carried out in Chile, Colombia and Panama and exposes serious abuses and failings by DHL.

They include the case of 42 workers sacked for union activity, evidence of DHL faking a customer letter to fire the son of a union official, claims that DHL monitors employees conversations and evidence that DHL intercepts union members’ phone calls.

The TWU will deliver the report to the German Consulate in Sydney this Thursday (10.03.16) requesting urgent steps to address the violations.

“These findings are made even more disturbing by the fact they mirror those found at DHL operations in other countries,” said TWU National Secretary Tony Sheldon. “Action must be taken to ensure DHL employees around the world, including here in Australia, have a safe and secure workplace.”

The report’s author, Dr Victor Figueroa Clark of the London School of Economics said, “The multiple, frequent and institutional anti-union practices described in this report are difficult to interpret as anything but the result of an anti-union policy originating from the heart of the company in Germany”.

One Chilian DHL employee, Valentina Pacheco, sustained chronic injuries due to poor training and says that DHL’s practice is to “wear down the workers”.

DHL operates three Australian divisions with a total of almost 3,000 employees and over 40,000 customers nationwide.

The TWU is part of the ITF global campaign to raise standards for all DHL workers.

View the full report ‘Breaking the Code’: www.breaking-the-code.org

Research showing similar findings at DHL sites in India and Turkey: http://goo.gl/KCRCiS and http://goo.gl/zE6FV5

Information regarding ITF/UNI Global complaint to OECD: http://goo.gl/DZi526